The Heritage Council provides independent technical advice and programmes on a wide range of critical environmental planning matters at local county, regional, national and international level.
Overview of the Heritage Council’s Planning Role – National Programmes, Forward Planning and Development Management
The Heritage Council’s statutory role in relation to the Irish Planning System is to support all levels of government, i.e., national, regional and local, and communities to actively participate in the planning system, through the promotion and enhancement of our built, cultural and natural heritage assets.
Heritage Council: National Programmes and Planning
The Heritage Council delivers numerous ‘Place-based’ heritage-led regeneration programmes in Ireland, which are formally linked to the statutory planning system - including the Collaborative Town Centre Health Check (CTCHC) Programme, the all-island Irish Walled Towns Network (IWTN), the Collaborative Public Realm Plan Programme for Historic Towns, the Community-led Village Design (CLVDS) Programme for Urban/Rural Villages, the award-winning Community-led VDS Toolkit (2012) and the Historic Towns Initiative (HTI).
Since 2016, our Collaborative Town Centre Health Check (CTCHC) Programme (CTCHC) is delivered in partnership with 70+ partners including the Department Housing, Local Government and Heritage, RGDATA, the Eastern Midlands Regional Assembly (EMRA), Local Authorities, Local Chambers, UCD, QUB, UCC, TU Munster, etc.
Provision of Forward Planning advice
The Heritage Council advocates for best practice heritage management in the planning sector in Ireland. We provide detailed policy advice on a regular basis to various levels of government on the formulation of planning legislation, planning strategies and plans and also prepare written submissions to various bodies including the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, as well as Local Authorities and Regional Assemblies, An Bord Pleanála and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This work is termed Forward Planning or ‘FP’ in the planning world. All our submissions are available here.
Development Management and role of Heritage Council
The Heritage Council is a prescribed body under S.I. No. 600/2001 Planning and Development Regulations, section 28 (inter alia) for various development consent and policy-making processes in Ireland. We are referred applications for various types of proposed developments, i.e. development management (DM) and we have the opportunity to make submissions with observations and recommendations.
Due to the high volume of development management referral material received we are not in a position to respond to each and every planning application sent to us but we do monitor what we receive. Responses will be based on the criteria set out in the document ‘Role of the Heritage Council in the planning process’ (below).
Planning related correspondence should be emailed to planning@heritagecouncil.ie
Planning Enforcement and Role of the Heritage Council
Due to the high volumes of planning related correspondence, the Heritage Council is unable to input or comment on planning enforcement matters.