Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 793: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the status of the nomination of Clonmacnoise, County Offaly, for inscription as a world heritage site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15513/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Ireland's new Tentative List of potential nominees to the World Heritage List has been submitted to UNESCO. The Monastic City of Clonmacnoise and its Cultural Landscape is included on the new List. Clonmacnoise is also included on the List in the Early Medieval Monastic Sites series.

A Tentative List is an inventory of properties situated on its territory which a State Party to the World Heritage Convention, such as Ireland, considers suitable for inscription on the World Heritage List. For each property on Ireland's new Tentative List, a standard form was submitted to UNESCO, in accordance with its guidelines. Each form contains the name of the property, geographical location, brief description and justification of its outstanding universal value. The submission of the Tentative List to UNESCO is a different process to that of the nomination of a property to the World Heritage List. Such a nomination takes considerable time to prepare and each property nominated for inclusion on the World Heritage List is subject to evaluation by UNESCO over, normally, an 18 month period.

In the case of Clonmacnoise, certain key issues, including the scale of the core and buffer zones of the proposed property, concerns about possible impacts on farming and planning practices, and concerns regarding the graveyard,need to be explored further with the local community before progress can be made as regards the proposed nomination to the World Heritage List.

A meeting will shortly be held between the Clonmacnoise Action Group and my Department.