Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

It was repoprted in the Irish Times yesterday [F McD] that the new National Monuments Bill is in final draft stage.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0510/1224270050275.html

Unfortunately there was nothing in the report to suggest that the automatic National Monument status for pre-1700 structures is intended to be advanced to take account of the passage of time. A rolling ‘age’ qualification would seem to be a more logical system than an arbitrary cut-off date, and more consistent with the original intention.

I’d like a 250 year rule, but even a 300 year rule would advance automatic protection to some ‘Billys’ with the prospect of blanket coverage in the coming decades, assuming we can get any of them to survive that long.

As reported the Bill seems to focus on regulating archaeological work, licence proceedures and the such like, making it simpler. I think some in our sister profession are finding the present system a bit of a challenge – you know – having to write stuff down.

Apparently there’s no shortage of guff about ”Protecting and promoting an appreciarion and awareness of Ireland’s unique built heritage”, that’s nice. One innovation is that, to quote McDonald’s report, ”all monuments will have either ‘special’ protection or ‘general’ protection”. In other words, protection – and protection light :rolleyes:

If anyone has any more detailed information on the text of the draft Bill, that might be a useful thing to share.

We might even be able to reel Devin back in if we hold out the prospect of some sell-out Green bashing.;)