Irish minister for arts, heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan has announced the start of a public consultation into a new strategy designed to preserve the country's landscape.

The Irish government has said that A National Landscape Strategy for Ireland is its contribution to the European Landscape Convention, which was signed in 2000. Deenihan said: "The will be to put in place a framework to achieve balance between the active management, forward-planning and protection of our internationally renowned landscape.

"A core objective of a National Landscape Strategy is for the sustainable management of change affecting landscape and not the preservation or freezing of the landscape at a particular point in its continuing evolution." The deadline for submissions is 5pm on 17 November.

Details: www.pobail.ie