Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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611. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for an update on requests to her office from Clondalkin Tidy Towns in Dublin 22 to have Mount Saint Joseph Cemetery on Monastery Road brought under national protection; and the additional options available to the local community, local government or central Government to assist in protecting and preserving this historic site. [39400/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To qualify for inclusion in the statutory Record of Monuments and Places as issued under section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, a monument must date from before 1700 AD. I understand that this cemetery, which was attached to Mount St Joseph Seminary or Monastery, catered for burials from 1825 to 1965. On that basis it does not quality for entry into the Record of Monuments and Places. For a monument to be taken into my ownership or guardianship under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2004, or made subject to a preservation order, I must be satisfied that it is a national monument within the meaning of those Acts, and that its preservation is a matter of national importance. This can only ever be an option in a very small number of especially important cases and, while I appreciate fully the significance the local community undoubtedly attaches to this cemetery, I am afraid that it does not meet the statutory criteria for national monument purposes.

Funding is provided by my Department for heritage conservation projects via a number of schemes, which are either directly administered or delivered through local authorities and certain agencies. On 9 February last, I announced an allocation of €624,000 for the Structures at Risk Fund 2015,to enable conservation works to heritage structures, in both private and public ownership, which are protected under the Planning and Development Acts 2000, as amended, and are deemed to be at significant risk of deterioration. This Fund, which is being administered through the local authorities, encourages the regeneration and reuse of heritage properties and helps to secure the preservation of protected structures, which might otherwise be lost. The Fund, which is now closed, was open to two applications per local authority, of which only one application may be in respect of a publicly-owned building. It is primarily a matter for the local authority to nominate its two applications. Since 2011, over 100 structures have been safeguarded for the future as a result of the Structures at Risk Fund. The operation of a similar scheme in the future would be contingent on dedicated funding being made available to my Department.

The remainder of my Department’s built heritage capital budget for 2015 is focused on the conservation and presentation of the State's heritage portfolio, which is managed by the Office of Public Works.

The Heritage Council, which my Department funds, also provides grants for the protection and preservation of the built heritage. For 2015, the Council administered a community based heritage grants scheme with funding of €547,000 available for projects that contribute to particular heritage themes. While I understand that applications have closed for their 2015 scheme, the Council may be able to advise if the structure would be eligible for funding now or in the future. The Heritage Council’s website is .