Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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71. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht why a 3,000 year old Bronze Age timber roadway at Mayne Bog in Coole in County Westmeath was completely destroyed in June 2015; why the recommendation of the National Monuments Service, which examined this site in 2006 and advised further archaeological work, was not acted upon; why no attempt was made to legally protect this site, despite her Department being aware of its significance for the past ten years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43488/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s National Monuments Service arranged for initial archaeological investigations in this case in 2006, which confirmed the existence of the Bronze Age trackway. Significant remains of the trackway still survive within the developed bog and it is likely that substantial parts also survive in adjacent intact areas of the bog. 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 I granted, 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 investigations has since been received by my Department and is being examined. My Department will, inter alia, liaise with the landowner in relation to any further archaeological work on the trackway that it determines from the report as being necessary and appropriate.