Vol. 500 No. 1
261 Mr. McGuinness asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the financial assistance, if any, available from her Department to owners of listed buildings or properties who wish to renovate or carry out basic maintenance, in particular on a property owned by a person (details supplied) in County Carlow. [3533/99]
The Deputy will be aware of the package of legislative, financial and administration measures announced by myself and my colleague, Deputy Noel Dempsey, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, last year, which are intended to strengthen the protection of our architectural heritage, including houses, castles and other buildings of architectural and historical interest. The package of measures includes the establishment of a new grant aid scheme for approved conservation works to protected (listed) buildings which will commence this year. This scheme will be administered by local authorities and will have funding of approximately £4 million per annum. I under stand that details of the new scheme will be announced in the near future.
Another source of public funds for heritage projects is the Heritage Council, which is a statutory, autonomous body. The council has powers to provide advice and assistance, including financial assistance in relation to the protection, preservation and promotion of the physical heritage. It should be noted that although my Department funds the Heritage Council, I have no function in relation to decisions made by it on the disbursal of grants. I was, however, pleased to be able to increase funding for the Heritage Council from £4 million in 1998 to £5.08 million in the current year.
As far as my Department is concerned directly, while it has no grant giving function in relation to listed buildings, it does have a role in assessing buildings in relation to section 482 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997, under which tax relief may be claimed on the cost of repairs or restoration of buildings which are determined by me to be intrinsically of significant architectural, historical, scientific or aesthetic interest.
