Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In October 1874, one of the first monuments to be taken into the care of the State was the Rock of Cashel, which dominates the skyline of my town of Cashel and which contributes in no small part to the economy of the town and the surrounding area. Visitor numbers alone bear testimony to this. Over 170,000 people were recorded as having come through the doors of the rock by the middle of last August. Since 1874, nearly 1,000 monuments at 768 locations have been taken into State ownership. I welcome monument structures and other items with serve to recall aspects of our history and development as a country being offered such protection. To see a Bill come before us which seeks to give greater powers of protection in respect of our built heritage, among other things, is welcome.

One provision of the Bill is that the area around a monument may be specified and protected if so doing secures the protection of the monument. This is particularly important where monuments or structures have a deep historical significance and where estates may extend well beyond the visible site, such as in the context of undiscovered features underground.

The Bill must include measures to protect historically significant monuments from subsequent works or the building of structures in the immediate vicinity that may take away from the associated historical importance of the setting within which a monument stands. There are places that do not benefit from such protections but that can teach us lessons in the context of aspects of our history that we need to preserve. Take the old workhouse in Tipperary town. To see it falling to rack and ruin because of issues with previous restoration programmes is deeply unsettling to say the least. If we are to preserve what has deep historical significance for communities across the country, we need to more nuanced system of preservation. Since the project relating to the site, which originally got under way more than a decade ago, ended abruptly, the workhouse has been a shadow of itself. I would like an attitude to be adopted whereby the State would play a more active role with councils, either investing to repurpose structures by means of projects that would benefit localities or to actively seek investment to rejuvenate them while maintaining their historical significance and identity.

Then there are structures in private hands that are of historical significance. Once such building is the Knocklofty House outside Clonmel. I have spoken to the Minister of State about this before. That has fallen into a complete state of disrepair. His Department had provided some funding for minor repair works. Those funds were returned unfortunately. Ownership issues were at play. Even so, the level of funding available would only patch it up temporarily. That leads me to my request that the Minister of State would consider the Government’s built heritage scheme to review the worst cases of neglect that we see pepper the country.

I thank the Minister of State and the Department for putting the Bill together and the joint committee for its deliberations on it. It would be remiss of me not to mention the need for the owners of thatched buildings to have them insured. The Joint Committee on Public Petitions deliberated on this issue on behalf of a number of petitioners. Unfortunately, the report that was issued recently on this fell far short of producing a tangible result. It is a report which lists ways by which to prevent fires from occurring, but that is not enough. Most of the insurers of these buildings have now pulled out of the country and no longer offer policies that are in any way affordable to the people concerned. Owners of these buildings are looking for the Department to intervene in a meaningful way to assist them in addressing this. They are concerned that the approach to date has been too hands-off to have any real impact. The image of the thatched building in our country is a draw for tourists across the world. As things stand, postcards are the only means by which they will be able to see them soon.

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