Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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248. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider designating the full site of Vinegar Hill in Enniscorthy, County Wexford as a national monument, in recognition of its historical significance as the location of the pivotal 1798 rebellion battle, and in light of recent research suggesting the presence of mass graves and other unprotected heritage features; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54148/25]

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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The 2016 geophysical survey results referred to identified three discrete pits which have been interpreted by those who carried out the survey as potentially representing mass graves associated with the 1798 battle. As no intrusive archaeological investigations have been carried out in this area, this interpretation remains conjectural.

The National Monuments Service of my Department has commissioned a wide ranging and detailed study of historic battlefields up to and including those of the 1798 Rebellion, known as the Irish Battlefields Project. Substantial progress is being made towards formal publication of the detailed results of that project and the resources being allocated towards their publication by the state reflects the appreciation that such places are an important part of our history and heritage.

In the interim, location points for a range of battlefields have been included on my Department’s online Historic Environment Viewer, and included in this is the Vinegar Hill Battlefield. While this does not of itself confer statutory protection on such battlefields, I am satisfied that a range of information is available to planning authorities so as to ensure that historic battlefields receive appropriate consideration in the statutory planning process, though it is of course a matter for each planning authority to adopt appropriate objectives in that regard under its statutory development plan.

Under the Historic and Archaeological Heritage and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, it will be possible to give legal protection to battlefields and other sites of historic events by way of entering them, with an appropriate surrounding area, into the Register of Monuments to be established under that Act. This will be the case even in the absence of surviving or identifiable physical remains from the battle or event in question. My Department is working on the continuing commencement of the various provisions of the new legislation, so that the new Register can be established at the earliest possible date. Work is also in progress to implement the system of Prescribed Monuments under the new Act, to provide automatic protection for certain classes of monument without need for registration. Consideration is being given in that regard to including as classes of Prescribed Monuments the physical remains of military engagements, such as clusters of archaeological objects associated with such an engagement.

I believe that the implementation of this new legislation (which fundamentally modernises and strengthens the law on protection of archaeological heritage and monuments generally), combined with the detailed publication of the results of the Irish Battlefields Project and greater attention to the protection of battlefields in the planning process will present great opportunities to ensure that battlefield heritage is comprehensively protected in the future.

Annual archaeological research grants funded by my Department’s National Monuments Service are made available through the Royal Irish Academy: www.ria.ie/grants/archaeology-research-grants/. These research funding streams may be a source to pursue for those for those wishing to carry out further research on the archaeology of Vinegar Hill, subject of course to necessary permissions.