Written answers

Thursday, 13 March 2008

Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

National Monuments

1:00 pm

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 194: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to events on 6 March 2008 at Rath Lugh, Lismullen, County Meath, when protestors and construction workers clashed over the boundary of the Rath Lugh site and the threat of destruction by two diggers and a bulldozer against the protected esker structure, and the fact that some protestors felt the threat to the national monument was so real that they took to tunnels built throughout the complex to try to save the site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11036/08]

Photo of John GormleyJohn Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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My statutory responsibilities relating to the national monument at Rath Lugh, Lismullin, County Meath are those provided for under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2004. On 28 September 2007 I placed a temporary preservation order on the national monument at Rath Lugh, which is located on an esker in the townland of Lismullin, Co. Meath, under Section 4 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1954. On 7 March 2008, I made that temporary preservation order permanent under Section 8 of the National Monuments Act 1930 (as amended). Arrangements are being made to have the preservation order laid before the Houses and to notify relevant parties of the making of the order.

It should be noted that the area of the monument covered by the preservation order is adjacent to, but does not encroach into, the lands made available by the National Roads Authority to the company responsible for constructing the M3 motorway. The area of the monument is delineated by reference to National Grid co-ordinates in an Ordnance Survey map attached to the order. The order relates to the national monument itself and not to the entire esker on which the monument is located. To assess the stability of the esker on which the monument at Rath Lugh is located I commissioned a report from an independent firm of consultants with relevant expertise in this matter. The report from the Consultants recommended that a number of precautionary measures be put in place to ensure that the esker is not undermined during the nearby road construction works or in the longer term. My Department has asked the NRA to implement the measures outlined in the consultant's report.

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