Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Our guests are very welcome, again. My first point concerns conservation officers. We only have one in Limerick. That is Tom Cassidy. We also have Sarah McCutcheon. They are side by side. We have only half a clerical staff equivalent to assist them. How are we going to protect our heritage structures and national monuments if we only have one conservation officer dealing with certain sectors within our local authorities? Our guests have mentioned local authorities. I meet Mr. Cassidy on a regular basis and he is under severe pressure trying to get to all the monuments. He will also be retiring in a short number of years. I am afraid of losing what Mr. Cassidy has. We must bring it to somebody else who can carry it on, or more people, or an office. It is like what our guests were saying about recording the national monuments. We must record what is in these people's heads and the type of information someone like Mr. Cassidy has, and the experience he has so it lives on.

The biggest problem I see for Limerick at the moment is we do not have enough people involved in conservation. It has held up planning permissions and buildings being restored. I was at one during the week that has been held up for a number of years due to conservation. I love my heritage, as our guests probably know well. I love all the monuments that are there and think everything should be protected. However, the lack of investment in an awful lot of structures in Limerick is the cause of them going into disrepair and beyond repair, so they are not being protected. We might look at graveyards. There is no right of way to get to some graveyards in Limerick. There is a graveyard in Limerick where there is a gate that is in private ownership. You cannot get to your loved ones. They are historical graveyards that have been there for many generations but we cannot get the right of ways to get to them. There is also the repair of iconic buildings within the graveyards, and of the stone walls that have been there for hundreds of years. They are falling down. What of the repair of those stone structures? Where do we get the extra money for us to repair our structures?

If a building is protected or it is significant to the area, how do we get to a place where if the Heritage Council does not have the money to fix it, we can get somebody else who might want to fix it or repair it in such a way that it can be returned to the streetscape and minimise the conservation needed to save the building? An awful lot of buildings are falling down because they are listed. We can open them up again by retaining the facades and roof structures facing the street and redeveloping the back of them if it is not economically possible to repair them. I want to save our streetscapes, our national heritage and monuments that the public regards as iconic so that we can get everyone in to visit them.

I am also very concerned that there has been no investment in conservation officers and structures that are within the remit. It is through no fault of their own because they cannot get out to help these projects along with the workload they have. What can the Heritage Council do about that?