It is important that the Local Government (Planning and Development) Bill and the Architectural Heritage (National Inventory) and Historic Monuments (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, introduced by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, are considered together. I welcome the introduction of new laws for listed buildings. It is important that where a planning authority orders work to be undertaken on a protected building, it will have to pay for the work if offending alterations were not authorised.
Under this Bill, all listed buildings will in future be known as protected buildings. The inside structure will now be protected. It is hard to control this unless the interior of a listed building is properly recorded prior to works being carried out. While the facade may remain the same, considerable changes can be made inside. Planning authorities are to be given powers to ensure heritage buildings are protected and they will be entitled to order works to be done to preserve or restore them. This is important. The Government is to introduce a new grant scheme for protected buildings at a cost of £3.9 million, which will be administered by local authorities. How will this fund be dispersed per county? A further £300,000 has been made available to deploy conservation expertise within local authorities. How many conservationists will this include?
Buildings may be added to the record of protected structures at any time, independently of the statutory five year development plan. All planning authorities are obliged to record buildings to be protected because of their architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, scientific, social or technical interest. This is important. I am dismayed that a spokesman for An Taisce said that while this legislation is an improvement, it falls far short of what is required. It is certainly well overdue. He also said there is a need for an outside body of conservation experts to supplement the activities of local authorities, which he claimed were not meeting their responsibilities as regards the conservation of our heritage.
I welcome this new era of protecting our heritage. Our record in protecting our official heritage has left much to be desired. However, the new regime which will come into operation under this new legislation will work well if supervised by local authorities working with the Department of the Environment and Local Government and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. This is a huge area which should be looked at.
Section 3 provides that the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands may, after consulting the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, issue guidelines to planning authorities to assist them in carrying out their functions under this Bill in protecting buildings and townscapes. The guidelines will ensure that a consistent approach to protecting heritage buildings is adopted nationwide. It is important that this is focused on.
Section 4 provides that, in addition to these guidelines, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands may recommend the inclusion of buildings in the record of protected structures. This will be based on the information in the national inventory of archaeological heritage. While I welcome this legislation, tougher laws are needed. The difficulty will be in its implementation.
Section 5 provides that a planning authority may add a building to the record of protected structures where it considers such a building war rants it or it may delete from the record a structure where protection is no longer warranted. A deletion of or addition to the record of protected structures may be carried out when reviewing the development plan as part of the statutory five year review or in accordance with the provisions laid down in section 6.
All these sections are important. A sum of £300,000 has been allocated for the employment of conservationists for the remainder of this year. However, these people will have a huge workload. Unfortunately, in the past, some of our great buildings have been destroyed.
Section 8 provides that planning permission will be required for any works which affect the character of a protected structure. This is welcome. As protection will now extend to the interior of structures, permission may be required for interior decorating, such as plastering. Owners or occupiers may request the local authority to indicate the works it intends to carry out in a declaration. This will be time consuming.
The new planning Act, the purpose of which is to allow for the increase in membership of An Bord Pleanála amends the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act, 1983. This is necessary to allow the board to cope with the large increase in planning appeals in the past two years. The new Act also allows for the identification of actions taken by staff and members of the board in the performance of their duties.
Section 38 provides for transitional arrangements for buildings currently listed for protection or preservation under a development plan. These will automatically become protected buildings under the Bill. Owners and occupiers of these buildings will be consulted and entitled to make representations to the planning authority on whether their building should remain a protected structure. A huge amount of work will have to be done by planning officers to deal with compliance with these regulations. Local authorities are overworked because of the huge level of applications being made at the moment and staff have not been allocated to deal with this.
As regards the £3.9 million which has been allocated towards the conservation of buildings, how much will be given per county on the basis of buildings in each county? The cost of detailed applications will be higher because people will be complying with conservation orders. Will part of the £3.9 million be made available as a grant to help people restore buildings which are a national treasure? While people will want to follow the guidelines, it is important that a grant be given as an incentive to help people comply with the regulations.
This Bill must be welcomed; it is very much overdue. The overhaul of planning guidelines, which the Minister will bring forward in the coming months, and intensification which will allow people build on confined sites are welcome.
I welcome the fact that the Government is looking at our architectural heritage before the millennium. I am critical of some aspects of the Bill, but I welcome its thrust. A fund should be available to maintain our rich heritage.