Dr. Martina Moloney:

It has been a very interesting area of work. The collaborative town centre health check and has been rolled out in quite a number of towns nationally at this stage. It has given everybody an opportunity to take stock of their place. I would claim that it has informed, to some extent, the Town Centre First policy that we are waiting for the Department to produce. The Heritage Council is anxious to support the Department in any way it can in regard to the roll-out of that policy.

With regard to the placing of responsibility for heritage within the Department in charge of local government, we are very comfortable bedfellows. We are very happy to be in a place where we can collaborate in areas such as planning. As the Heritage Council is a prescribed body under the planning legislation, we fit very neatly into the Department responsible for planning. Heritage, however, is not limited to one Department. That is one of the areas we need to work harder on. Perhaps with the support of the committee, we can work harder on engaging other bodies. For instance, we would be very interested in dealing with the Department dealing with climate action. We have good relations with most Departments. There are still areas where we can assist further on a cross-governmental basis. That is a priority for us going into the next phase.

Ms Teehan might comment on the Town Centre First policy.