Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 555: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will review and reconsider a decision made by his Departments heritage section not to allow proposed works at a graveyard (details supplied) in County Tipperary; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26060/07]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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In April 2007 my Department was asked for its view on a proposal to develop an access road to the graveyard in question.

This graveyard, like many others throughout Ireland, is located within an ancient church site, which dates back to between the fifth and seventh century AD. In cases like this, the surviving walled graveyard is usually part of a much larger archaeological site defined by one or a number of concentric enclosures. The buried archeological features and deposits in the area around the graveyard can be of great importance from an archeological point of view specifically because they have not have been disturbed by burials. Where my Department, in the exercise of its functions in relation to heritage protection, is asked for its views on works at or in the vicinity of such sites it takes account, in considering the matter, of the relevant circumstances in each particular case.

A Senior Archaeologist from my Department visited the graveyard in September 2007 to examine, having regard to current levels of use of the graveyard and any accompanying requirement for an access road, whether it might be possible to improve access in a sensitive manner, while minimising any impact on the archaeological features and deposits in the vicinity of the graveyard. The archaeologist was satisfied, however, that the existing graveyard is at the core of a much larger archaeological site on which any access road would have a significant impact.

Nevertheless, in recognition of the Committee's wish to improve access to the graveyard I have arranged for the National Monuments Service of my Department to meet with the Graveyard Committee again to see what might be possible in terms of improving access in a manner that is sensitive to the archaeological features, perhaps by way of a pedestrian pathway, rather than a road as proposed.