Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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348. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his plans to designate famine workhouses as national monuments; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42312/13]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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A number of workhouses are included in the Record of Monuments and Places and the Sites and Monuments Record managed by my Department under the National Monuments Acts. Ongoing consideration is given to the designation of new monuments in the context of the maintenance of those records and the development of monument protection policy, in line with the availability of resources and to support the preparation of a comprehensive new monuments bill. Additional workhouses may, therefore, be designated as part of that process as time goes on. The new bill, which is currently being drafted by Parliamentary Counsel, will consolidate, modernise and improve the legislative code for the protection and regulation of our archaeological heritage.

Apart from the National Monuments Acts, workhouses would, in many cases, also be included and subject to the protections provided by the Record of Protected Structures maintained by the local authorities under the Planning and Development Acts 2000-2012.