Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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955. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide funding to help with the cost of preserving the 7th century ruins of Saint Feichin’s Church and Holy Well on Omey Island (details supplied); if grants are available to help with this preservation project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46830/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No 679 of 8 December 2015.

With regard to funding, the position is that financial support is provided by my Department through a number of structured schemes for the conservation and protection of heritage buildings. My Department itself operates a Structures at Risk Fund to enable conservation works to heritage structures, in both private and public ownership, that are protected under the Planning and Development Acts and are deemed to be at significant risk of deterioration. This fund, which had an allocation of €624,000 in 2015, was administered through the local authorities and sought to encourage the regeneration and reuse of heritage properties and to help to secure the preservation of protected structures which might otherwise be lost. A scheme for 2016, which will be delivered through the local authorities, is currently being finalised.

I launched a new €2 million scheme - the Built Heritage Investment Scheme - for the repair and conservation of protected structures on 21 October 2015. This scheme will operate in 2016, via the local authorities, on the same model as the very successful Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme, which ran in 2014. It is expected to support a significant number of projects across the country and to create employment in the conservation and construction industries, while helping to regenerate urban and rural areas. The scheme for this year is effectively closed as local authorities were required to submit a provisional schedule of projects to my Department by 16 December 2015.

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 contributed to particular heritage themes. The Council would be able to advise if the particular structure referred to by the Deputy would be eligible for funding, now or in the future.

The remainder of my Department’s built heritage capital budget for 2016 will be focused on the conservation and presentation of the State's heritage portfolio, which is managed by the Office of Public Works.