Mr. Ian Doyle:

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and members for inviting the Heritage Council to attend. I am head of conservation at the Heritage Council. The CEO of the Heritage Council, Virginia Teehan, sends her apologies as she is unable to be here today. I am accompanied by my colleagues, Catherine Casey, head of climate change, and Pearse Ó Caoimh, head of communications and public affairs.

The Heritage Council’s remit is very broad. The joint committee’s oversight of the policies within Our Rural Future and Town Centre First is of particular interest to us, as we have over many years engaged with these policies through expert advisory groups, in particular town centres first, and in contributing to the implementation of the actions.

We welcome the work of the town centre first office under the leadership of the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, with the support of local authorities under the aegis of the two responsible Departments. We note that the town centre first policy has adopted the valuable learnings of the Heritage Council’s collaborative town centre health checks programme.

The Heritage Council has always taken the view that heritage exists in both urban and rural environments, that it adds character and distinctiveness to our places, that good heritage practice is about sustainability, community involvement and partnership and that a joined-up approach to natural, cultural and intangible heritage is essential. We take the view that our urban and rural areas are closely related insofar as vibrant rural areas support our towns and villages and vice versa.

A number of our programmes are of interest and speak to these policies. These include the traditional farm buildings scheme, which funds the conservation of privately owned traditional farm buildings and is run in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. In 2023, this funded 60 farm building conservation projects with a value of €1.084 million. In 2022, this funded 69 projects to a value of just over €1 million. This scheme has been running since 2009 and over that time has made a significant impact on the rural landscape, engaging with heritage and the transfer of conservation skills.

The Heritage Council community heritage grants scheme provides funding to community groups and not-for-profit non-governmental organisations around the country for heritage projects. This scheme enables communities and heritage NGOs to continue their work on existing projects or to start new initiatives. In 2023, we allocated almost €1.6 million to 137 heritage projects such as the Ballydangan red grouse project in County Roscommon and the Abbeyleix bog project in County Laois.

For non-profit and community-led groups with higher capacity and wider reach, the heritage organisation support fund provides crucial core funding to allow them to consolidate and develop. In 2023, 37 groups were successful in obtaining funding to a total of €1.13 million. In 2024, there will be funding for 35 groups to a total budget of €1.64 million. Groups supported include the Community Wetlands Forum, Historic Houses of Ireland, the Inishowen Rivers Trust, Wicklow Uplands Council, Burrenbeo Trust and Dark Sky Ireland.

The Heritage Council’s Irish Walled Towns Network, IWTN, focuses on uniting and coordinating the efforts of local authorities and communities involved in the management, conservation and enhancement of historic walled towns in Ireland. At present, there are 32 member towns located across Ireland, North and South. This includes the town centre first towns of Carrick-on-Suir, New Ross, Athenry and Castledermot and we look forward to seeing the strong role that heritage plays in the ongoing regeneration of these historic places through town centre first plans. In 2023, the council awarded €650,000 to IWTN member towns. In keeping with the remit of this committee, we have been long-term supporters of community-led heritage strategies on Bere Island, County Cork. Implementation of an initial Heritage Council funded conservation plan has been supported by the Heritage Council for more than 20 years. The efforts towards island sustainability and the promotion of the island’s military heritage in that period have been impressive and this has been led by the local community.

In keeping with the Heritage Council’s Strategic Plan 2023-28: Our Place in Time, we are growing our work to promote and sustain traditional skills such as thatching, carpentry, lime mortars, etc. We are currently doing this through an all-island heritage skills programme in partnership with the UK King’s Foundation and the Northern Ireland historic environment division within the Department for Communities.

The historic towns initiative, HTI, is a joint undertaking between the Heritage Council and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It promotes heritage-led regeneration of Ireland’s historic towns and has been used to trial collaborative approaches to heritage-led regeneration. By engaging local communities, heritage experts, and local authorities, the HTI has piloted ways to revitalise historic towns, enhancing their appeal while conserving cultural identity and there is a case study at the back of the paper provided which I will not read out relating to Portlaoise. Since 2018, the HTI has supported 37 towns - I am happy to say two of those towns are in County Roscommon, namely, Roscommon town and Boyle - in delivering a range of heritage-led regeneration projects and allocated almost €8 million in funding. This year it will fund specific regeneration plans in Monaghan town, Passage West, County Cork, Lisdoonvarna and a conservation architect led plan to supplement the town centre first plan for Strokestown, County Roscommon.

The success of the HTI approach is reflected in the town centre first policy, which encourages conservation of historic and cultural assets to stimulate revitalisation of town centres. Policy development has benefited from the Heritage Council’s model of trialling collaborative approaches to heritage conservation on the ground and assisting in the mainstreaming of these to national policy.

What next? I refer to future directions for the Heritage Council's role in policy development and mainstreaming. Looking forward, we feel the Heritage Council is well positioned to play a strong role in the further development and mainstreaming of heritage-focused policies in both urban and rural development across Ireland, while assisting with implementation of the policies within both Our Rural Future and town centre first. Our focus is on deepening the integration of heritage conservation into broader policy frameworks, enhancing collaboration with local and national government and scaling up successful models to a national level.

We feel a critical issue is developing heritage capacity at local level. The successful implementation of policies like town centre first depends on a local delivery mechanism through local government and the local community. The placement in local authorities of professionals including town regeneration officers, active travel officers, climate action co-ordinators and others will boost the effectiveness of investments in regeneration projects. However, the full realisation of policies like town centre first will depend on enhanced collaboration at local level, establishment of strong working relationships with all stakeholders and the availability of a wide range of in-house heritage expertise. We are also developing our links with the County and City Management Association, CCMA. As part of this the Heritage Council is investing in building heritage capacity at local level through continued investment in the heritage officer programme, which is now in its 25th year. My colleague, Mr. Ó Caoimh, has a publication on a range of heritage officer projects nationally, which are presented in a new publication. We have copies of it with us. There is also the new biodiversity officer programme. We are working with colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to grow our work with the CCMA to develop an architectural conservation officer programme with the objective of achieving the employment of an ACO in each local authority. We equally plan to develop a local authority archivist programme with the same objective of achieving a national network. These local programmes, supported through integrated training, will focus on best practice in holistic heritage conservation, stakeholder engagement and realising the economic benefits of heritage-led regeneration.

We welcome the establishment of Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí. Ireland’s network of national parks is composed primarily of state-owned lands. There are also examples of community-led landscape management in Ireland. The Heritage Council recently advertised a call for tenders for a research study into best practice in such community management of landscapes, recognising that the emotional significance of a community’s interaction with the landscape is a major part of what shapes rural communities’ pride of place. This study will, we hope, identify best practice and inform the developing policy on land use and land cover mapping and management for the future. By focusing on these strategic areas, the Heritage Council aims to reinforce its role as a key facilitator in the development and mainstreaming of heritage-led policies that contribute to vibrant, sustainable communities across Ireland. This proactive approach ensures that heritage conservation remains integral to national development strategies, enhancing both social cohesion and economic vitality. I again thank the Cathaoirleach and committee members for their attention. My colleagues and I are happy to answer your queries and provide further information as required. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.