Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I know the commission's work on electoral boundaries is of interest to us all. My understanding is that it should report in July. That will give some certainty. With the potential for up to 15 to 16 additional seats in the next general election, it will exercise all of us in the coming months.

Thank you for your comments, Chair, on the Heritage Council and the strategy launched yesterday, which was a very positive event. Significant additional funding has been put into heritage in the past two and a half years in government and there has also been a 22.6% increase in heritage programmes, which increased by €40 million for 2023 and that has resonated right down at community level. We are currently finalising built heritage investment schemes, the historic structures fund, and the community monuments funds. All of them are oversubscribed. I was speaking to Virginia Teehan yesterday and she said the grant programmes are oversubscribed. There is a significant demand from communities. The Government is trying to meet the demand by increasing the grant programmes and increasing the ambition year on year.

To complement the strategy launched yesterday, the overarching document, Heritage Ireland 2030, is going to continue to deliver for the sector. We hope to meet the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, to discuss the big challenge presented by the skills issue, which is affecting every sector. We want to ensure that we can encourage young people to move into ecology and heritage skills as well in the coming years. That is very important.