2025-12-11

15. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation if public access can be facilitated at Athenry Dominican Priory; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69834/25]

I want to ask the Minister if public access can be facilitated at the Dominican Priory in Athenry and also if consideration can be given to extending the opening season of Athenry Castle. It is closed now until March and it is a missed opportunity for the town.

The Athenry Dominican Priory is an important medieval monastic site and is a national monument in State care. The Office of Public Works, OPW, has statutory responsibility for its conservation, presentation and management. Protecting the fabric of this historically significant site while facilitating meaningful public access is a key priority for the OPW, and this balance guides all decisions around how the priory is operated. While the priory is closed to unsupervised access, it continues to be made available to the public through guided tours and supervised visits, which are organised and delivered by OPW guide staff based at Athenry Castle. These visits allow members of the public to experience and engage with the monument while ensuring that the site is appropriately protected at all times. During 2025, guided tours of the priory were held throughout the season from April to November. These scheduled visits have proven to be effective in allowing access while maintaining oversight of visitor movement within the monument. All access requests are managed through Athenry Castle, where OPW staff provide the necessary information, organise tours and co-ordinate visitor management. At present, the priory is not open for general, unsupervised public access. This position is based on a combination of conservation, security, and health and safety considerations. Since 2019, following incidents of damage and graffiti, the OPW has had to restrict casual access in order to safeguard the structure and prevent further damage. The OPW continuously monitors the condition of the monument and, as part of operational planning, it will review whether additional guided or supervised access can be scheduled more frequently throughout the year.

As I am sure the Minister of State knows, Athenry is a heritage town. Within the town, we have a lot of really iconic landmarks and attractions, including the castle and the priory, which are under the remit of the OPW, but also the likes of the heritage centre and the town walls. There is incredible history in the town, and I think it is fair to say that there is a lot of frustration locally that we are being undersold in terms of our status as a heritage town and our tourism potential. We definitely have not reached our full potential for a town with such great heritage and history. There is a lot of great work going on locally to try to address that and I will come back to that. However, that some of our greatest assets are closed to the public is a major challenge. As I mentioned, the castle is closed now for the winter season until March. While I understand that access can be facilitated to the priory, there is a need to give a lot of notice. Also, I do not think there is a broad awareness among people who are visiting Athenry that there is the option to visit the priory. I ask the Minister of State to engage with the OPW on the opening arrangements for these sites and the promotion of these sites more broadly, which is a challenge.

I agree with the Deputy in one sense but I would say that the OPW is very good and works very closely with all stakeholders in relation to the castle and the priory and all the other OPW sites. We promote all our sites very well. Last year alone, there were some 50 million visitors to OPW sites across the country, and no place more than the west of Ireland which got a lot of visitors. On the other hand, we have to supervise the priory. The Deputy knows the damage that has been caused. It would be a different situation if we were here this morning and we had not had the priory supervised and damage had been done. Then, the Deputy would be asking me what I was going to do about it. I will work closely with the Deputy, as I have on other things that he has raised. In terms of tourism, my Department works closely with other Departments and Fáilte Ireland to try to promote tourism, where possible. I was the first Minister to allow kids under the age of 12 into all of our sites. I have also done a pilot scheme for under 18s, to improve the visitor numbers up and down the country, and it has proven to be very successful. In relation to the question the Deputy asked me about a longer opening schedule, it is something I will look at.

I want to acknowledge the work of the OPW locally as well. The Minister of State mentioned the number of visitors visiting the sites. I had a parliamentary question recently and the response told me that in the region of 15,000 people visit Athenry Castle every year. That paints an overall picture for the number of visitors coming to the town but the same number of people would visit Galway city or Connemara on one weekend. We can do a lot better in Athenry in terms of the number of people visiting. I take the Minister of State's point about safety and maintenance of the structure and so on. However, I would ask that a particular effort be made around the promotion of that service being available to people, in that they can access this site because it is an iconic landmark, as I mentioned. I ask the Minister of State to comment on the opening season for the castle. It is a missed opportunity that from November to March it is closed. There is a lot of great work going on locally. Galway County Council has plans for a heritage trail, heritage event spaces and a River Clarin walkway. Great efforts are being made to enhance our tourism offering but we need all the stakeholders coming together to push this forward and the OPW is an important part of it.

As the Deputy outlined, it is important that all the stakeholders come together. Regarding anything that comes from the stakeholders, my Department has always reached out and been supportive. I will have to come back to the Deputy regarding the castle because it was not in the question. I am looking at the issue of sites that are not getting the numbers I would like to see them getting. I call these the smaller sites. I want to see if we can work in partnership with other tourism sectors, so we can deliver more numbers into those key areas. Tourism is what keeps the country going at certain times of the year. In my own town of Athlone, I note the large number of people who, when the castle closes, ask me when it is going to open again. I fully understand the Deputy's frustration but, as he said, the OPW is doing good work. We will work together with the stakeholders to deliver for people and tourism but we have to acknowledge all the local groups and the work they do. I thank them for their work because the work they do along with the voluntary groups, particularly in the area in question, is vital to the economy and to tourism.