Main pic: A farmyard near St Johnston which availed of the scheme.
The Heritage Council has called for an expansion of the Traditional Farm Buildings Grant Scheme.
The initiative, it says, is oversubscribed despite applications still being open until Monday, April 24.
Virginia Teehan, CEO of The Heritage Council, said that through the grant scheme, the Council aims to work with farmers to manage what is important to them on their land and conserve them.
She told RTE News the scheme as “really competitive” with over 200 applications already this year, while only 70 to 80 projects can be done annually.
The grants, for the conservation and repair of traditional farm buildings and related structures, range from €4,000 to €30,000 with 75% coverage of the total costs.
Ms Teehan said that buildings are marks of previous generations of farmers who have invested time and energy using local materials to create structures and the scheme last year created over 31,000 hours of employment for traditional craftspeople, such as masons.
All across the country there are sheds, walls, cobblestone yards and other buildings and “there’s a great affection for them and we are privileged to work with farmers on them protect these buildings”, she said, adding that conservation experts advise farmers on various options for the reuse of the building, but the general idea is to keep what is good and adopt new materials to allow the reuse of the buildings.
At the moment, the Council is only working with farmers who have demonstrated a commitment to protecting biodiversity and have protected their farm against the impacts of climate change.
“We would like to see the scheme expanded, there is a lot more work to be done,” Ms Teehan said.
Further details and application forms are available from The Heritage Council website at: www.heritagecouncil.ie and on (086) 025 9202. Advice to applicants is also available from the County Donegal Heritage Office, Donegal County Council.
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