Madam, -Liam Reid's report in your edition of February 26th, "Trust plan may signal reprieve for great houses", relayed the personal enthusiasm of Minister for the Environment Dick Roche for the establishment of a national-trust type body for Ireland. As author of the 2003 report in which the establishment of such a body was first recommended - A future for Irish historic houses: A study of 50 houses - I very much welcome this news.
The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Irish Georgian Society jointly commissioned the report. The Taoiseach launched it and wrote the foreword in which he pointed to the significance of the fact that it was written by an independent party, and concluded that it would be "an invaluable tool in the consideration and formation of policy on the preservation and enhancement of our historic houses".
Most enlightening was the very positive reception of the report by so many interested parties. Thus surely suggests that its recommendations reflect a wide consensus that historic houses should be protected (and researched and studied) as part of the national heritage.
The report recommended that the consideration of the structure and legal frameworks of the trust should involve the input of a wide range of stakeholders. It will be the inclusive nature of the trust that will be of most importance. Its success will ultimately depend upon its ability to channel the growing interest and goodwill of the Irish public towards historic properties.
Mr Roche is reported as saying that the Government may have to make a significant financial contribution to the setting-up and initial running of the trust. This will be extremely important in ensuring that the lesser houses will be protected along with the great.
The establishment of the trust should work in tandem with other recommendations in the report such as a favourable review of tax laws governing historic properties.
This should not be misinterpreted as the safeguarding of privilege nor the endorsement of the class system or the politics that created historic houses; it is about the preservation of the State's architectural heritage and the handing down of it intact to future generations.
Basing the proposed Irish Trust on the English National Trust system may seem like a good idea, but one must remember that many of the issues facing Irish historic houses are unique to this country, for historical reasons as much as anything else, and that whatever trust is put in place, its constitution must be flexible enough to deal with individual houses on an individual basis. - Yours, etc.,
TERENCE DOOLEY, Centre for Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates, NUI Maynooth, Co Kildare.