Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is a fair response. I would like to reference the Faro Convention. I think we discussed this before. It deals with cultural heritage. I do not think we are signatories to the Faro Convention. There will be a lot of issues around that, and there will be cost factors and legal and other obligations. However, I ask the Minister of State to take that on board and ask his officials to look at the Faro Convention. The only reason I know about the Faro Convention is that last week I was stopped, just a few doors down from this building, by people who were with the Minister of State at the launch of his heritage plan. When I told them I did not know about the Faro Convention, they suggested I take a look at it. They told me of its significance. These are people who sit on the Heritage Council, and who are involved in national policy. These are academics, and they told me what a really important document it is. It should be a future aspiration of this country to be a signatory to it, as with the Barcelona declaration and the Valletta declaration. I presume the Faro Convention is from Portugal. I respectfully ask, even though the Minister of State said it lies beyond the parameters of this legislation, that he acknowledge its significance and importance, as I do. I ask that his officials look at it so we might bring forward a parallel discussion in the future about cultural heritage.