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

Funding of over €54 million has been made available in 2019 for my Department's heritage programme. This includes €38.7 million allocated for current expenditure with a further €15.4 million in capital funding and allows for increased investment in both our built and natural heritage.

There were some 8 million visits to our national parks, nature reserves and national monuments during 2018, including the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, who visited Killarney National Park at the end of a two-day visit to Ireland. A ten-year €100 million tourism interpretative masterplan, in partnership with Fáilte Ireland, was also launched in 2018 to improve the experience for all visitors through the provision of enhanced amenities, interpretation and recreational facilities and technology.

My Department continued to work with the Office of Public Works in the conservation of over 700 national monuments, including the very significant archaeological discoveries made at Brú na Bóinne last year.

Heritage Week continued its successful run with well over 2,000 registered events undertaken by 1,200 event organisers and some 90,000 website users.

Over the past year, my Department has engaged with a number of key stakeholders to inform a public consultation process to develop a revised and updated national heritage plan, Heritage Ireland 2030, to set out key principles and policies for conserving and managing Ireland's unique heritage over the next decade and more.

This new policy will be built around a vision that Ireland's living heritage is valued, enjoyed and protected for future generations with three themes supporting this vision, namely national leadership and heritage; heritage partnerships; and communities and heritage. Heritage Ireland 2030 will ensure a flexible, modern approach to caring for, managing and celebrating our heritage which takes account of best practice internationally.

Ireland’s first national biodiversity conference took place in Dublin Castle last month. Jointly organised by my Department and the Irish Forum for Natural Capital, the event brought together all key stakeholders from Government, public bodies, business and NGOs to identify measures to help reverse biodiversity loss and implement the National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021.

I was pleased to be able to announce a number of new initiatives to protect Ireland’s biodiversity at that conference. These include doubling annual funding by my Department for biodiversity actions by local authorities’ biodiversity and heritage officers to €1 million and doubling funding to tackle invasive species by 2021.

We will also establish a climate action programme to improve understanding of the impact of climate change on biodiversity and create an Irish business and biodiversity platform in conjunction with the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation and a range of businesses. We will also improve surveillance, detection and prosecution of wildlife crime with a memorandum of understanding with An Garda Síochána.

In terms of protecting our architectural heritage, my Department's historic structures fund was launched at the end of last year. It allows for improved supports for the owners of historic buildings and structures. This fund will build on the 430 projects across all local authority areas funded through the built heritage investment scheme and the structures at risk fund in 2018.

Finally, in terms of the heritage programme area, my Department remains committed to the full and effective implementation and enforcement of the habitats directive and will continue to build on the progress achieved in the past two years with a revised special areas of conservation designation and management work programme. An increased allocation of €3 million is being made available in 2019 for peatlands restoration, conservation and management.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, will speak about the relevant aspects of the Gaeltacht, Irish language and islands Estimate. He will also deal with Foras na Gaeilge, while I will outline some details in relation to Waterways Ireland.