Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The witnesses are very welcome to the committee. I thank them for taking the time to travel up from west Cork. They have had major success at a time when our heritage sector has taken an enormous hit across the board. Even within the area of culture, arts, and heritage, heritage bore the brunt of funding cuts over recent years. The abolition of the Heritage Council was mooted. It once received €19 million from the State, it now receives €3 million. Fáilte Ireland now fills that role and it seems the Heritage Council has had to take the back seat. Despite this, a report on the heritage sector in 2011 said that it generates €1.5 billion, returns €500 million to the Exchequer and sustains 40,000 jobs. I know Mr. Cole has talked about the tourism benefit but I also listened to Mr. Hayes speaking about how it is not desirable to overwhelm the Old Head. In my contribution, I want to make the point that it is vital that we do not simplify our heritage to increase its appeal to tourists. We should not force local groups to go through Fáilte Ireland and to justify spending on our heritage on the basis of bed nights and so on. Going down the Fáilte Ireland route rather than using the set agency that already exists, the Heritage Council, is wrong. Investment decisions should never be based solely on visitor numbers and bed nights. The representatives have proven in their contributions that our built heritage is not only an enormous contributor and valuable to Fáilte Ireland, which is why it funded the work, but is, first and foremost, a public good and is valuable in and of itself. It is also valuable to the local communities who guard it. I thank the witnesses for their work in guarding the local, national, and international heritage of their area.

I cannot tell from photos online or the photos presented today how the tower is rendered on the front. Is it brick?