Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 25 Sep 1996

Vol. 469 No. 1

Written Answers. - National Architectural Audit.

Eoin Ryan

Question:

303 Mr. E. Ryan asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the body responsible for the national architectural audit and the exact involvement and responsibilities of his Department in this regard; the exact resources given to the audit in each of the years of its existence; the number of grades of personnel; the costs of this audit for each relevant year; if he will give a breakdown of all other expenses involved in the audit for each relevant year; the budget for 1996; and if he will make a statement on the matter.[16947/96]

Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht (Mr. M. Higgins)

The inventory of the post-1700 AD architectural heritage is being undertaken by the National Monuments and Historic Properties Service of my Department. Work on this inventory is on-going and its results will be assimilated into the proposed national inventory of architecture as recommended in the recently published report of the Interdepartmental Working Group on the Protection of the Architectural Heritage.

Since the inception of the inventory of the post-1700 AD architectural heritage, there has been an average of one full-time member of staff at architect level and three part-time members at senior architect, higher executive officer and clerical officer levels, assigned to the project. The total expenditure on the project for the years 1991-95 amounted to £608,000 made up as follows: 1991, £30,000; 1992, £102,000; 1993, £130,000; 1994, £121,000; 1995, £225,000.

Most of the expenditure is attributable to the cost of employing consultants to carry out the necessary field survey work and related research but some costs also arise from associated mapping and computerisation.

The budget for 1996 is £200,000. Further progress will of course, be dependent on the level of funding made available but this will be reviewed in the context of Government consideration of the working group's report and recommendations.

Eoin Ryan

Question:

304 Mr. E. Ryan asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the progress, if any, made to date in relation to the national architectural audit; the areas covered to date; the extent to which this audit has been published and or computerised; and the exact timetable for the ongoing and remaining work of the audit.[16950/96]

Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht (Mr. M. Higgins)

The National Inventory of the post-1700 AD Architectural Heritage which was piloted in 1991 with a survey of Carlow town, has continued to concentrate on surveys of the historic centres of the country's main towns. The following 24 cities-towns have since been surveyed and are at present the subject of on-going field survey work: Athlone, Athy, Ballina, Carrick-on-Shannon, Castlebar, Cavan, Cork, Clonmel, Dundalk, Ennis, Galway, Kilkenny, Letterkenny, Longford, Monaghan, Portlaoise, Roscommon, Roscrea, Sligo, Tralee, Tullamore, Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow.

The survey of Carlow has been published and made available to the local authority but all of the survey information collected is being entered on computer and linked to computerised maps for publication at a future date. Progress on the inventory will depend on the level of funding made available but the Interdepartmental Working Group on Strengthening of the Architectural Heritage has suggested 25 years as a reasonable completion date for recording the inventory's estimated complements of one million buildings.