Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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234. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the initiatives that will protect our maritime cultural heritage, as committed to in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27930/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is fully committed to the protection and preservation of our underwater cultural heritage as outlined in the Programme for Government. Work is currently underway within the National Monuments Service of my Department on a draft National Strategy to protect Ireland's underwater cultural heritage. It is anticipated that this will be ready for public consultation later this year.

Ratification by Ireland of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage is also under consideration. This is a key international instrument, which provides an agreed shared framework for co-operation among States Parties in relation to maritime cultural heritage including historic wrecks.