Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 464: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason a property (details supplied) in County Mayo was included in a scheme. [27371/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under the provisions of the Planning and Development Act 2000, each planning authority is required, for the purpose of protecting structures, or parts of structures which are of special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest, to include in its development plan a Record of Protected Structures (RPS) for its functional area. This may be done at the time of the preparation of the development plan or, where appropriate, at any other time.

The Act enables me, as Minister, to make recommendations to a planning authority concerning the inclusion of specific structures in its Record of Protected Structures, and a planning authority must have regard to any such recommendations. The making of an addition to, or deletion from, a Record of Protected Structures is a reserved function of the planning authorities.

In September 2008, I made recommendations to Westport Town Council concerning the inclusion of all seventeen of the sites recorded for Mill Street by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) survey in the Council's Record of Protected Structures. My recommendations were based on the NIAH survey of Westport Town. The structures included in the survey are objectively recorded and rated in accordance with international guidelines; a copy of the survey is available on www.buildingsofireland.ie. I understand from Westport Town Council that all the buildings recommended in September 2008 were subsequently proposed for inclusion in the Record of Protected Structures for Westport Town; a decision on up-dating the Record of Protected Structures for the town is expected to be considered at a meeting of the Town Council in September, 2009.