Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I said before, we are very lucky at this juncture to have Deputy Noonan as our Minister of State with responsibility for heritage. Nobody doubts his commitment and his capacity in that area. However, he will not always be Minister of State. This is a legacy issue. It is a really important piece that needs to be bedded down. I say this respectfully to the Minister of State. I have great admiration for his commitment to heritage. However, what is this amendment saying? It is saying nothing in this Act shall violate the definitions, principles and requirements outlined in the Valletta Convention, of which Ireland is a signatory. He has accepted that Ireland is a signatory. That is all this amendment is seeking to do. Therefore, when I hear a Minister stand up and say it is sort of there or it is in it, I think we need to have double guarantees. Let us be sure that nobody can undermine the principles of the Valletta Convention at any future time. That is what I am seeking to do.

The second part of that amendment states that, "the Minister shall be required to ensure the Valletta Convention is adhered to when implementing the Act." That applies to whoever the Minister happens to be at any particular time. That is very simple. I really have a difficulty with a Minister of State saying he has a difficulty with those two simple asks. An alarm bell is ringing that there may be a case where we have to deviate from Valletta. I do not believe we should be deviating from something to which we are absolute signatories. This is huge across the European Union. One of the things we have in common is that every member of the Union is signed up to the Valletta Convention.

I would like for this to be resolved, if not today, then on the next Stage. The Minister of State might go away and think about it, or see if there is any way we can strengthen the Valletta Convention. It does not need to be in the way I am suggesting. There may be a better way. However, all of the professional people with whom I have spoken told me loud and clear that if we were to do nothing else today but solidly embed the Valletta Convention and its principles and objectives into this Bill, it would be a really good day's work. I would like to be able to go away and say we have done that. I think we can do it.