Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

277. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the degree to which her Department has evaluated the economic potential of various local, historical and heritage sites throughout the country with a view to their further utilisation for educational purposes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27350/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Market research clearly demonstrates that culture and heritage form an increasing share of the reasons why tourists come to Ireland. This is also true of domestic tourism and is reflected in the increasing visitor numbers at all our publicly accessible heritage sites and facilities.

My Department fully supports the appropriate conservation of Ireland’s heritage sites, both as important assets in their own right and to optimise their contribution to economic development and tourism promotion. It is in regular and ongoing contact with the Office of Public Works and Fáilte Ireland to agree and devise shared priorities and policy approaches with respect to the management of these sites and their presentation to visitors.

My Department’s is also tasked with increasing public appreciation and understanding of our cultural heritage. The Department disseminates extensive information about heritage sites and activities through its publications and its online presence covering areas such as architectural inventory, archaeological monuments and historic shipwrecks. Specifically in the educational field, the Department’s National Monuments Service has collaborated with Limerick Education Centre to produce a series of lesson plans and resources that is available to primary and secondary school students to promote greater interest in and knowledge of our archaeological heritage.

The Heritage Council, which is funded by my Department, also plays an important role in education and community engagement with heritage through initiatives such as Heritage Week and the very popular Heritage in Schools Programme.

Finally, our national parks have been subject recently to a rigorous appraisal in the context of the potential to deliver enhanced amenity, tourism and conservation value. As indeed has our outdoor recreational infrastructure.

I am acutely conscious in particular of the educative, scientific and wellbeing vale of out entire heritage estate.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

278. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which her Department continues to liaise with the Office of Public Works to ensure that heritage sites and buildings continue to be protected and if necessary sealed to prevent water damage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27351/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department cooperates closely with the Office of Public Works to protect and manage national monuments in state care. There are around 1,000 national monuments at approximately 750 sites around the country and these are managed by the OPW on the basis of a Service Level Agreement with the Department. The National Monuments Service of my Department provides archaeological advice to the OPW on a routine basis and also with regard to the OPW Flood Relief Scheme, to ensure the appropriate protection of archaeology in the context of flood relief. All works at or in the vicinity of a national monument – to include any works to mitigate water damage - are required to be notified to the Department, which ensures that appropriate controls are put in place for the protection of the site.

Officials of my Department meet regularly with their OPW counterparts to devise and agree shared policy approaches to areas of mutual interest, to review operational  priorities while also working closely together on a day-to-day basis in relation to individual projects.  My Department is also providing €350,000 of funding to the OPW in 2018 to assist in the conservation and presentation of historic buildings and national monuments in State ownership.