Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the work of the Heritage Council and the great work it does with communities. In its pre-budget submission the council requested additional funding to invest in heritage-based initiatives, including an extended walled town network. While this investment would be well spent, the reality is we are still living within constrained budgets and we have responsibility to manage the economy in a prudent fashion. While I would love to be in a position to announce broad spending increases across all sections of my Department it would not be realistic, pragmatic or responsible.

I was pleased to announce a new built heritage investment scheme for the repair and conservation of protected structures, and this scheme is modelled on the built heritage jobs leverage scheme announced in 2013 which was very successfully piloted in 2014, resulting in the leveraging of almost €10 million in private sector investment and generating approximately 175 whole-time-equivalent jobs.

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