Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has appointed Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) to update the existing guidelines covering the assessment of impacts on Cultural Heritage by projects funded or carried out under the auspices of TII.

The guidance and standards document(s) will address the key principles of Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment. These will apply to all Planning and Design project phases for TII projects throughout Ireland. The intention is to ensure the guidance and standards are fit for purpose in the context of regulatory changes since 2005.

FAME has responded to this consultation with the following feedback:

The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) is the distinctive voice of archaeological employers and managers in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and the only organisation solely devoted to representing their interests within the profession and the business world.

FAME has welcomed your invitation to comment on the PROPOSED DEFINITION of cultural heritage drafted for Transport Infrastructure Ireland.

We have consulted with our membership, and consider that the Proposed Definition would be improved with the addition of some extra text, which is identified below in bold text.

Cultural heritage is a collective term which includes archaeological, architectural, artistic, literary, linguistic, traditional knowledge, craft activities, folk memories, stories and myths, cuisines, medical practices, religious and ritual practices, music, dance, songs, ethnicity and other resources inherited from the past through to contemporary society. As an essential part of culture as a whole, cultural heritage consists of tangible and intangible traces of the interactions between people and places, people and nature, and people and objects through time. Cultural heritage is a broad concept encompassing landscapes, sacred, cultural and historic places and spaces, sites, monuments and built environments, as well as communal identities, collections, past and continuing cultural practices, traditional customs, beliefs and skills, place-names and languages, formal and informal knowledge, and living experiences. It records processes of historic development thereby informing diverse national, regional and local identities and forms an integral component of our lived experience. The distinctive heritage and collective memory of each locality or community are unique and an important foundation for sustainable development, in the present and into the future.