The Heritage Council Annual Report 2002

3. Placing Heritage at the Heart of
Public Life
Submitted comments on 13 appeals to An Bord
Pleanála
An Bord Pleanála forwarded a number of appeals to the Council for its comment. The
Council also made a number of appeals to the Board during the year on various cases.
13 submissions were made to the Board in 2002.
In working with other State Bodies Council seeks to increase the significance and
value attached to the national heritage. Council has worked closely with the ESB on a
feasibility study on cooling towers and an inventory of the ESB property portfolio.
Review of Ireland’s CAP Rural Development Plan
2000-2006
The Heritage Council commissioned the European Forum on Nature Conservation &
Pastoralism to review the treatment of the natural heritage in the Rural Development
Plan 2000-2006. The report examines the relationship between agriculture and the
management of the natural heritage under four measures: Early Retirement,
Compensatory Allowances, Agri-environment and Forestry. The report also
comments on the likely impact of the proposed mid-term review on links between
agriculture and the natural heritage in Ireland. This work will be applied in Council’s
review of its policy paper on Agriculture.
Agri-environment scheme for more intensively
managed land
The Heritage Council commissioned a study of heritage interest of the more
intensively managed farmland, and developed costed proposals for the establishment
of an agri-environment scheme which could be introduced to complement REPS. The
agri-environment scheme would target those aspects of the farm that were of heritage
value, such as hedgerows, and would provide incentives for farmers to undertake
measures of direct benefit to wildlife, such as the creation of conservation headlands
and rough grassland margins.
European Environmental Advisory Council
Conference
The Heritage Council hosted the Annual meeting of the European Environmental
Advisory Councils in Kilkenny from 16 to 19 October. The EEAC is a European wide
network of Advisory Council from across the European Union and from Accession
Countries. The EEAC co-ordinates the co-operation of the advisory councils in