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

6.2 Economic Impact of Ireland's Historic Environment
Our impact assessment framework has been structured around three principal components: (1) economic
activity corresponding to core organisations comprising the 'inner wheel' of the historic environment
sector; (2) the built heritage repair and maintenance sector; and (3) expenditure resulting from tourists
attracted to Ireland principally because of the historic environment. It is worth reiterating that in compiling
the impact assessment we have deliberately adopted a conservative approach to the estimation of
economic benefits. We believe that this is important in serving to further enhance the robustness and
credibility of our overall findings.
Our key findings may be summarised as follows:
The historic environment is a highly significant contributor to Ireland's national economy, directly
supporting in the order of 25,000 FTE jobs. Including indirect and induced effects, it is estimated that
the scale of economic impact attributable to the historic environment supports approaching 40,000
FTE employment positions in Ireland.
Overall, this equates to an annual national income contribution attributable to the historic environment
of some €1.5 billion to the nation's GVA.
The greater share of economic impacts attributable to the historic environment correspond to tourism
(attraction of visitor expenditure) and construction (built heritage) sector effects – each in the order of
€700 million to GVA and equivalent to some 17,000 jobs.
Importantly, a significant proportion of this overall impact is rooted in expenditure and/ or grants
activity by the 'inner wheel' of core historic environment organisations, including the Heritage Council,
DAHG, Fáilte Ireland and others, with such activities providing a powerful stimulus to wider economic
activity across the Irish economy.
Within the context of Ireland's national economy, it is estimated that the historic environment sector's
contribution to the national economy is equivalent to 1% of total Irish GVA, and some 2% of overall
employment.
The above are annualised figures, and necessarily correspond to the most recent full year (2009) for
which financial and economic base data may be made available. In light of the challenging economic
climate which has been characteristic of the period since 2009, it might reasonably be expected that the
absolute contribution of the sector could have been subject to some reduction most recently – in line with
much of the rest of the Irish economy. However, even if this were the case, it is likely that the relative
economic contribution of the historic environment may actually have increased, with this reflecting
disproportionate decline in a number of areas of the national economy previously subject to pronounced
growth, including, notably, the financial sector and major segments of the construction industry
(principally new build).
Beyond these conventional economic impacts highlighted above, it should of course be recognised that
as a public good the importance of Ireland's historic environment extends to makes a highly significant
contribution to a range of wider economic, social and cultural objectives - as our case studies examples
clearly demonstrate. Such benefits encompass, among others, educational (both formal and informal),
enhanced community development (through the work of volunteers) and towards attractive and
sustainable communities in Ireland.
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