Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 670: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the penalties applicable to landowners if a protected monument (details supplied) is destroyed; the persons who should enforce those penalties; if he will intervene in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12898/07]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Section 12 (3) of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994 provides for the protection of monuments and places listed on the statutory Record of Monuments and Places. Two months notification in writing of any works proposed at or in relation to a listed monument is required to be given to the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Contravention of this requirement is an offence under the Act. The penalties upon summary conviction of such an offence is a maximum fine of €1,269 or, at the discretion of the court, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both; the penalty upon conviction on indictment is a maximum fine of €63,486 or, at the discretion of the court, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both. Prosecutions are taken in any specific case by the Director of Public Prosecutions on behalf of the State. The monument at Gortnafolla, Co. Mayo, which is in private ownership, is listed as a ringfort in the statutory Records and Monuments and Places for Co. Mayo. Notification of quarrying works at this location was referred to the Department by Mayo County Council in November 2006. In 2005 the relevant landowner had commissioned archaeological test excavations at the monument. The findings of the subsequent report were submitted to the Department in 2006. The report concluded from the results of the excavations and from cartographic evidence that there was evidence to suggest the monument was not archaeological in nature but was instead a "tree-ring", constructed in the nineteenth century within the demesne associated with nearby Turlough Park House. In the circumstances no further action is envisaged by the Department in this matter.