Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Funding of more €47.1 million has been made available from my Department's heritage programme in 2018, including €36.7 million allocated for current expenditure and €10.4 million for capital expenditure. The total gross expenditure for programme B until 30 June 2018 was just over €6 million, which is slower than anticipated due to a number of tiny issues which are expected to be resolved before the year end. Through the National Parks and Wildlife Service, my Department manages some 87,000 ha across our national parks and nature reserve network. These parks annually attract 4 million visitors and support a broad range of enterprise and employment opportunities for the communities in which they are situated.

Following on from the highly successful visit by the Royal Highnesses, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, to Killarney National Park in June, August saw the completion of the major restoration project at Killarney House, to which I alluded, with the opening of the spectacular 18-room visitor centre exhibition. The exhibition serves as the main visitor and interpretative centre for the national park. It highlights the beauty and interprets the richness and significance of its landscapes, habitats, flora and fauna.

Killarney House now links the national park directly with the town and is a significant new asset in the south west’s tourism offering. As the committee will be aware, this final phase of the Killarney House project follows on from the successful opening of its restored ornamental gardens in April 2016 and the opening of three refurbished historical rooms last July. More than 375,000 people have visited the ornamental gardens since their opening in April 2016. Early indications are that the visitor centre and exhibition in the house will be an equally important attraction.

In July last, as part of our strategic investment partnership with Fáilte Ireland, which is aimed at enhancing and promoting the tourism offering at Ireland’s national parks and conserving and protecting the natural environments of the parks for the enjoyment of future generations, my Department published a document entitled Experiencing the Wild heart of Ireland, which is a tourism interpretative master planfor the national parks and nature reserves. The plan sets out a framework that will guide the phased development of enhanced visitor experiences and improved visitor facilities at our national parks and nature reserves, taking into account our conservational objectives and based upon research into international best practice.

The plan recommends a suite of capital projects of varying size from smaller scale interventions, such as the installation of viewing platforms, to larger projects such as the development of new boardwalks and trails and the construction of new visitor centres. From these proposals, projects will be funded jointly by my Department and Fáilte Ireland through a multimillion euro investment package over the coming years.

The first such project is a €2.1 million investment in the Wild Nephin-Ballycroy National Park, which was announced on 31 August of this year. The aim of the project is to develop a continuous 53 km walking and cycling trail from Newport to Ballycastle on the Wild Atlantic Way through the national park. The project will eliminate the need on the western way to walk the busy R312 route by creating a spur that will provide a more direct and safe route on quiet tracks through bogland and forests. The outcome of this project will be an off-road continuous cycling and walking trail in challenging terrain that will link the popular Great Western Greenway with the Wild Atlantic Way.

Our historic buildings and structures are also a vital part of our heritage. While the primary responsibility to care for and maintain our built heritage structures rests with the owner, the built heritage investment scheme and the structures at risk fund invest essential capital in our built heritage and help the owners and custodians of historic structures to safeguard them into the future for the benefit and enjoyment of communities and the public. There are almost 50,000 protected structures around the country. Many of them are in great need of investment to ensure their preservation and continued use so that they remain a living part of our history and community life into the future. Last April, funding of some €3.3 million was allocated to 431 projects across every local authority area under the built heritage investment scheme and the structures at risk fund. These projects are well under way with funding due to be drawn down in the final quarter of the year. I am pleased to note the structures at risk fund will be revised and refreshed as the historic structures fundfor 2019. This will offer improved supports to those who work hard in our communities to ensure our historic buildings remain alive and in use so that they are passed to future generations in better condition than we found them.

I will be pleased to expand on any issues members would like to raise in respect of this programme area before my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, speaks about the relevant aspects of the Gaeltacht, the Irish language and the islands programme area.