Heritage plan to turn past into jobs
One of the main concerns of the strategy, designed to guide council activities through to the end of 2016, will be creating jobs through heritage projects and heritage-related tourism.
According to the council, every €1 million of its grants programme directly created 69 jobs, maintained the jobs of 73 others and indirectly supported 307 jobs last year, meaning a return of 4.4 full time jobs for every €10,000 spent.
The 16-point plan to be launched today by Jimmy Deenihan, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, aims even higher with ambitions to make the heritage sector a serious contributor to the country’s economic recovery.
Preparing the strategy, Heritage Council chief executive, Michael Starrett, said: “Heritage is not so much a thing of the past but of the present and the future.”
The Heritage Council carries a wide brief, with its responsibilities including the protection and enhancement of national monuments, archaeological sites, noted architecture, wildlife habitats, heritage gardens and parks, landscapes, seascapes and inland waterways.
The five-year plan aims to show how a more cohesive approach to the promotion of these national assets by the private interests and state agencies involved can translate into sustainable jobs.
