Ms Virginia Teehan:

To answer the Senator's question on the consultation process, as he said, we engaged with the general public, those working in the heritage sector and the academic community. There were a couple of strands to our work in that regard.

I will address his more general comments related to areas around communication and the number of different bodies involved in heritage.

There is a huge ecosystem out there in this regard and it is difficult for individuals and communities to know who does what. Therefore, there must be a mapping of this information and that need was identified as a key issue.

The Senator mentioned the role of young people. Getting them engaged with heritage was a key theme that ran through all the consultations, but particularly those involving communities. It is one area where we like to think that we have had an impact. Our community grants scheme delivers significant results on the ground for communities. They are small grants, but they help to bring people together to work for a common objective, be that the clearing of a graveyard, restoring a specialised piece of fabric or developing interpretive panels in towns such as Killmallock and other towns around the country. Those grants are a focal point for communities. One of our aims involves growing that aspect, bringing communities together and developing best practice for heritage and giving advice and leadership in that regard.

As my chairperson identified, we are involved in the area of technology in supporting community groups and individuals in the application of technology in heritage practice and knowledge sharing and access to heritage professionals. That is something communities want. They want to work in heritage, but they also wish to ensure that they are doing the right thing and not damaging archaeological sites and that they are observing best practice in graveyards, for example. Communities wish to ensure they are doing something good that will last forever. In addition, communities and the public are looking for an infrastructure of heritage networks. There is An Taisce and the big NGOs, but smaller groups are active on the ground as well. Those could include small groups interested in their local bogs, as well organisations in inner city Dublin concerned with the oral history of Stoneybatter and similar places. Therefore, there is a wide range of groups. Our role is to bring them together and to put in place some infrastructure to support them. We must also endeavour to work across Departments, because to the public we are siloed. The Heritage Council must work with elected representatives and civil servants to cut through some of the bureaucracy and red tape to make it easy for people.

Those are some of the key issues that arose in the consultations with the public. I should also not forget to mention the role of local authorities and local authority heritage officers, the funding we give through the local authority heritage officers programme to local authorities and the leadership those heritage officers provide on the ground. It is an important facet of what we do. It is mentioned in the programme for Government that we should support and grow that scheme and we are happy to do that. Equally, we are exploring growing the range of expertise available in local authorities in the context of biodiversity officers. I mentioned the other professionals concerned in this context.

Returning to the heritage sector, the diversity of Ireland, the growing and changing face of modern Ireland and the identity of Ireland must be protected. It must be inclusive. Heritage must include all the members of society and all people, no matter where they are from, or their race, creed or colour. That aspect must be central to the policies and values underpinning Heritage Ireland. The heritage sector must speak with one voice and we must be holistic in our approach. That is something that happens in all sectors. Our heritage remit includes the natural, built and cultural sectors, and we span everything from swans to ponds, buildings, archives, trees and biodiversity. Represented on the ground, then, are all sorts of experts and people with brilliant experience. However, we must speak with one voice in this forum, at Government level and to our communities to serve them more coherently than we are. We need a sound infrastructure for heritage management. We are beginning to grow that facet at local authority level, but we must work more comprehensively with the NGO sector. We are doing that a bit already. We have set up a new grant scheme for the NGO sector for those organisations that cannot get funding for themselves. That undertaking was established last year as part of our Covid-19 response program. It has been hugely successful and it is bringing people together to speak together.

Local authorities are a crucial factor in leadership for heritage. Those in large urban areas, such as in Dublin, where there can be disparate interests, need to have an identifiable leader. The sector looks to the local authorities for leadership, and that is particularly the case in rural areas, which have been hollowed out because of the impact of Covid-19, Brexit and other economic problems. In many cases, small towns and villages in many places are without souls and their identity and leadership must come through exploring the heritage through their local authorities.

Another issue we have concerns sustained funding. We operate in accordance with annual funding streams, but for some heritage projects, though, we require funding over several years and the sectors look to us to provide them with funding for several years. I refer to large infrastructure projects, such as the restoration of walled towns and the restoration of historic railings. Keeping that sense of the public realm space being in good order requires sustained funding, which we cannot currently guarantee. That is a problem we must resolve.

Our colleagues in the sector used a lovely phrase: “Daisies grow on both sides of the Border”. Heritage does not stop on the Border and birds fly across the whole landmass and seas. We must work more closely with our colleagues on the other side of the Border. We already do so and we have strong relationships with our colleagues in Northern Ireland, but we must examine having more comprehensive joint programmes with colleagues not only in Northern Ireland but also in Europe.

That is a summary of those key points raised during the consultation. As Dr. Moloney said, this document has been co-ordinated by the Department. I understand that it is at an advanced stage of development and that it will, hopefully, be launched in early 2022.