Economic Value of Ireland's Historic Environment - The Heritage ...

The protection of the architectural heritage is administered principally through local authorities‟ Records of
Protected Structures, although national government operates the National Monuments Acts, primarily
concerned with ruins and sites of archaeological value.
3.3 Ireland's Historic Environment: Study Definition
On a strategic level any operational definition of the Irish historical environment should of course
sufficiently reflects the remit and coverage of those principal organisations active in conserving,
maintaining, managing and/ or providing access to the nation's historic environment assets and sites.
Equally, and in practical terms, it is also important that an operational definition is necessarily conditioned
by key questions concerning data availability, coverage and quality.
Reflecting these various criteria, Ireland's historic environment has been defined for the purposes of this
study as comprising the following sets of built heritage assets – those which are statutorily protected,
together with components of the broader built heritage:
World Heritage Sites
Recorded Monuments, as defined by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Protected Structures included in planning authorities' development plans
Architectural Conservation Areas included in planning authorities' development plans
Designed landscapes surveyed by the Inventory of Architectural Heritage, and
Other structures erected pre-1919 22 .
The study is therefore focused on how the above assets are conserved, maintained, managed and
presented, and how they link to different sectors of economic activity in Ireland.
A number of further sets of assets, including National Parks, Native Woodlands, and Special Areas of
Conservation, are not included within our working definition on the grounds that such features are more
closely related to consideration of the natural environment. Therefore, reference to the natural
environment is made only when there is an explicit built environment or archaeological component in situ.
Similarly, in the case of museums, it is the buildings, if pre-1919, rather than the collections contained
therein that are included under the definition for this study. Museums, more generally, may be more
closely identified as part of the cultural sector.
22 This is an increasingly accepted definitional component for the broader built heritage, although it is
acknowledged that some Protected Structures may have been built post 1919. Up to 1919 most houses in
Ireland and Great Britain were built by skilled craftsmen using traditional indigenous building materials. Although
the majority of older buildings are not listed/ statutorily protected, the majority provide flexible domestic and office
accommodation. Major investment in money, energy and materials is embodied in these structures.
15