Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 1520: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the details of the building survey his Department carried out in 2004. [2527/06]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As part of a multi-annual programme to include the whole country, my Department carried out surveys of a sample of the architectural heritage of north Tipperary, Westmeath, Offaly, Kilkenny and Sligo under the national inventory of architectural heritage, NIAH, programme in 2004. The purpose of the NIAH is to identify, record and evaluate the country's post-1700 architectural heritage uniformly and consistently as an assistance to local authorities in the compilation of their record of protected structures, RPS, under Part IV of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The contractors undertaking NIAH fieldwork carry authorisation and identification which they are required to present on request and when entering on to private lands; they are also provided with documentation to explain the purpose of the survey to persons making inquiries. The Department does not publicly advertise the carrying out of specific surveys to prevent abuse by persons fraudulently passing themselves off as authorised officers; because the survey is field-based, it is not operationally possible to issue prior notifications to individual owners.

Following submission of the 2004 fieldwork data, the material is in the course of being checked, edited and mapped in my Department. When this is completed, structures of regional or higher importance for each of these counties will be published on my Department's website, www.buildingsofireland.ie.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government makes recommendations under section 53 of the 2000 Act to the relevant local authorities to include these structures in their RPS. I plan to issue ministerial recommendations in respect of the 2004 surveys during the course of this year. The decision to include structures in the RPS is a reserved function of local authorities following the required notifications to owners of relevant properties and to the public under the 2000 Act.