The Heritage Council is seeking an almost fourfold increase in funding to underpin its three-year strategic plan which aims to "take the heritage of our country into the next millennium in a position of strength."
According to the council, its budget would need to increase from £2.9 million this year to £11.8 million in 2000 if it is to fulfil its role and meet the requests for grant-aid, particularly for historic buildings.
At a ceremony in Dublin yesterday to mark the publication of the plan, the Minister for Arts and Heritage, Ms de Valera, said there was no Government commitment to increase the council's budget and she wished it well in raising money from "non-State" sources.
Ms de Valera was greeted on arrival by a silent demonstration by some 20 members of the staff of the National Museum, who have been seeking urgent discussions with her on the staffing crisis at the museum's newly-opened annexe at Collins Barracks.
"Hello again", the Minister said to the demonstrators, who have been confronting her at public functions. Asked by one what she was going to do, she said she was working on it and wanted the dispute resolved as soon as possible.
In her speech at the ceremony, Ms de Valera described the financial projections in the Heritage Council's three-year plan as "very ambitious", not least because they were "greatly in excess of the existing and anticipated levels of State funding".
She pledged she would do her utmost to achieve increased aid, but said the council was well aware of the "disparity between its ambitions and what can reasonably be expected in terms of funding from the State" and would be looking elsewhere.
Ms Freda Rountree, chairwoman of the Heritage Council, said it recognised that resources were finite and that it was only through co-operation between the council and the Minister's Department that the benefits to Ireland's heritage could be maximised.
She said the council was working to extend "this spirit of co-operation" to other bodies, such as the Department of the Environment (on planning and architectural heritage protection) and the Department of Agriculture (on the impact of farming on natural heritage areas).
Ms Rountree stressed that the three-year plan "develops a thematic approach to heritage rather than one which compartmentalises it into various elements". This allowed the council to "look at the totality of the landscape" and the interactions of its components. Its three "key themes" were the collection of data on Ireland's heritage, the promotion of pride in it and the making of proposals for policies to protect the heritage; all of which were included among the council's tasks when it was established under the 1995 Heritage Act.
Ms Rountree said the council was committed to the development of a "new philosophy for our heritage", based on sustainability and the importance of community participation. It has also opened a website on the Internet.
She said the council recognised the role of local groups in looking after their heritage. "Specific projects which we are currently developing, such as our community grants scheme and our millennium project, the Pilgrim Paths, arise out of this recognition."
Among the "priority actions" in the plan are surveys of museums, vernacular housing and ecclesiastical architecture; an audit of State heritage spending; a review of planning legislation and its impact on heritage; and a series of seminars to raise public awareness.
