Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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99. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is satisfied that adequate facilities exist regarding transport to and parking thereat in respect of various historical sites, locations and buildings throughout the country with a view to ensuring the maximisation of visits by tourists from home and abroad; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30493/17]

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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The Office of Public Works is responsible for the maintenance and management of over 800 National Monuments and Heritage properties in State care. Many of these locations are of considerable interest as tourism destinations and attract significant volumes of both domestic and foreign visitors annually. The provision of adequate car and coach parking facilities, and indeed visitor-facing infrastructure generally, to serve this tourism demand is therefore a priority at many locations.

Notwithstanding the need to provide these facilities for visitors, it is also clear that the provision in particular of carparking has to be treated with considerable caution having regard to the aesthetic and landscape sensitivity of historic sites, the potential presence in many cases of underground archaeology and the general risks to fabric involved in bringing large volumes of visitors into close proximity with sometimes fragile buildings. In certain cases, the provision of carparking within large formally designed historic landscapes can be at odds with the sensitive management of such locations and can only be located where they do not create an adverse visual impact. Equally, at certain small rural sites where visitor numbers are not significant, the correct approach will be that no adjacent parking, or at most a single layby, is the appropriate response.

No two sites are the same and each one poses unique challenges. Accordingly OPW approaches any proposals to provide new or extended carpark facilities with some caution having regard to the impact these developments bring, the needs of heritage protection and a sustainable approach. There are however clearly a number of instances where improved facilities are desirable and the OPW is in the process of addressing a number of these cases both with its own resources and as part of the partnership currently underway with Fáílte Ireland to address capital works development issues.