Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thus far, the Heritage Council has not been in a position to advertise its grant scheme due to a lack of funding. The council has also suffered substantial cuts to its funding since 2008 and, while it has maintained as much of its core work programme as possible, this was achieved in 2012 by using its funding reserves. This meant financial support was available for grants in support of heritage management, heritage education, community outreach and heritage research, but this reserve is now exhausted. Unless the overall level of funding available to the council in 2012, including its reserve, is available again in 2013, it will not be in a position to run these important programmes in the coming year. The ending of such grants will be a real and significant loss to the heritage sector and, perhaps more importantly, to society in general.

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