Michael Starrett, chief executive of the Heritage Council, recounts the highs and lows of the agency's 11 years to Sylvia Thompson
Michael Starrett is not so much a man on a mission as a man on several missions. As chief executive of the Heritage Council with a core staff of 15 working in the Co Kilkenny headquarters, he initiates, develops and then aims to implement policies on all aspects of heritage in Ireland. Educating the public on the value of local and national heritage is another central part of the work of the Heritage Council.
Now in existence 11 years, the Heritage Council has had varied success in pushing the heritage agenda. A statutory agency, it was set up in 1995 with a brief to develop policies on heritage matters. All staff members are employed on rolling contracts, including Starrett himself, who has recently begun his third five-year contract. Each year, the Heritage Council has to submit funding applications to the Department of Environment.
This arms-length relationship with Government has had mixed results. On the one hand, it has allowed the Heritage Council to forge ahead on policies in line with European heritage tradition, yet on the other, it has left the council powerless when the Department of Environment dragged its heels, and has arguably allowed the destruction of some of our heritage through insensitive development.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Starrett is not prepared to criticise the department publicly, but one gets the impression that the lack of unity between the two bodies has forced the Heritage Council to find new ways to force heritage issues to the top of the agenda.
Take, for example, the Heritage Council's new call for village development plans and their recent collaboration with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, the Irish Planning Institute and the Irish Landscape Institute on this issue.
Starrett explains: "There is a sense of frustration that we didn't get what we were pushing for five years ago in terms of village design statements. If we had, things would have been an awful lot better. But, now we have to look at ways we can improve towns and villages in terms of their individual character. For some places it is too late, but for the whole of Ireland it is not too late."
The Heritage Council would like to see every town and village in Ireland have its own village design statements, such as that written for Tyrrellspass, Co Westmeath. A slim document, the Village Design Statement for Tyrrellspass, published in 2004, includes information on demographic trends in the village, description of village life today and a look at the architectural structure of the village and how recent developments haven't harmonised with the original village.
Connecting people with their local heritage is the key to good heritage management, according to Starrett. "Our founding chairwoman, Freda Rountree, always said that people were disenfranchised from their heritage by the structures the State put in place to manage and protect our heritage. Under our current chairman, Tom O'Dwyer, the Heritage Council has been encouraging people to feel a greater sense of responsibility for their local heritage."
The network of heritage officers now working in 26 local authorities around Ireland is one of the council's biggest success stories. These officers have had a significant role in developing a heritage culture on a local level throughout Ireland. They have written county heritage plans and commissioned and written numerous high-quality publications on aspects of local heritage that many local people weren't even aware of.
Starrett says "heritage officers have been a force for advocating change in each county. There are now heritage officers in 26 of the 34 local authorities and eight of these positions are permanent". The Heritage Council provides training and leadership to these officers and also pays a percentage of their salaries.
IMPROVING THE MANAGEMENT of both urban and rural landscapes is another key development the Heritage Council wants to see happen. "Ireland was one of the first countries to ratify the European Landscape Convention in 2004, but implementation on specific measures in the convention has been painfully slow," says Starrett.
He adds that up to 20 per cent of the landscape is protected in many European countries, compared with approximately 12 per cent here - of which only 1 per cent, national parklands, is genuinely managed. "There aren't any resources in place to manage much of the protected landscape, such as the land in the Burren in Co Clare," he says. "The rest of Europe has forged ahead in terms of planning, developing and managing their protected landscapes. We want the Government to take a national approach to landscape rather than a local authority piecemeal approach."
The Heritage Council is currently working with Meath County Council in relation to the M3 running through the Tara-Skryne valley, with Louth County Council in relation to the Cooley Peninsula, and with Offaly County Council in relation to Clonmacnoise and the Boora bog complex.
Speaking about the contentious plans for the M3 through the Tara-Skryne valley, he says "the key is to prevent peripheral development in the area and to make sure the landscape is designated to minimise ad hoc changes to the character, and Meath County Council has agreed to move forward on the designation of landscape in the area".
Starrett believes that sensitive heritage areas such as the Tara-Skryne valley heighten the public awareness of heritage issues and that, in general, there has been a growing public interest in heritage matters.
"You must consider that approximately 17 per cent of people are involved in heritage organisations in 2006 as compared to less than 3 per cent in 2000," he says. A new survey has also found that Irish people are prepared to pay to maintain our heritage as a quality-of-life issue. And the Heritage in Schools project, in which heritage experts give talks in local schools, has become much more popular in the last few years.
THE OPENING OF the National Biodiversity Data Centre in Co Waterford this month is the culmination of a long campaign by the Heritage Council. "Ireland is the last country in Europe to have a national centre for collecting biological data," says Starrett, who believes such a facility will make information about threatened animal and plant species more available to the public.
He also believes that the there is a growing understanding of the importance of biodiversity. He says: "The fact that Dublin City Council now want to put in place a biodiversity plan before further changes occur is significant, as such a biodiversity plan will then become part of future development plans."
Farmers have often been seen as uninterested in heritage matters. Yet, changes to the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme will now mean that some farmers can apply for grants to the Heritage Council for the conservation of farm buildings and other historic features in the landscape. "This could have a really big impact around the country. In the past, superstitions kept fairy forts and other structures in place, but more recently the biggest loss to archaeology in this country has been through farming practice," says Starrett.
The awarding of local heritage grants to community groups, environmental organisations and individuals working on heritage projects is a time when Heritage Council staff come face to face with their public.
"We get €7 million a year from the National Lottery, and 85 per cent of this goes back out in grants. The ceremony for recipients of the local heritage grants is the most rewarding day in the whole year."
Next year will be an important one for the council. It will be the start of their third strategic plan. It includes aims such as halting the decline in biodiversity by 2010, implementing the water framework directive and restoring and developing walking routes.
Next year will also see the staff move from their present offices in Rothe House on Kilkenny's Parliament Street to the former Bishops Palace, next to St Canice's Cathedral. Starrett is full of pride as he discusses these plans. He enthuses about "the southeast hub of natural heritage", taking into consideration the new biodiversity data centre in Waterford and other decentralisation plans for the Department of Environment.
"Our job is not an executive one of making decisions. Instead, it is about influencing such decisions and to provide leadership and awareness. Recently, we have helped develop the new geography syllabus for the Leaving Certificate. Heritage has been taken for granted in the past and we're trying to ensure that it's built into the thinking and policies at national, regional and local level."