Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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28. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason the destruction of a major archaeological monument, a major timber-built road of European significance at Mayne Bog, Coole, County Westmeath is continuing, given the National Monuments Service, under her aegis, has known since 2005 about the existence of the monument; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32186/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department, through the relevant development control frameworks and in co-operation with the landowner, is pursuing an archaeological response in this case that is based on preservation in-situ of those parts of the trackway where it is a realistic option and preservation by record where it is no longer viable.

Most recently in that context, my Department submitted a set of archaeological observations, with three specific recommendations in relation to the trackway, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in connection with an Integrated Pollution Control licence application to the Agency earlier this year for peat extraction at Mayne Bog. The form and extent of the archaeological excavation sought by my Department was directly comparable to the archaeological mitigation strategies adopted in relation to similar monuments on Bord na Móna peatlands.

The archaeological investigations recommended by my Department to the EPA have since been carried out by the landowner under a separate licence granted by me, as Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, under section 26 of the National Monuments Act 1930. The works were inspected and verified at the time by my Department’s National Monuments Service.

A report on the excavations has since been received and is being examined in my Department, which will liaise with the landowner in relation to any further archaeological work on the trackway that is determined from the report as being necessary and appropriate.