€700, 000 to save Dublin’s historic buildings

A building conservation fund of almost €700,000 will be available to owners of historic buildings in Dublin city this year.

It will be the first time in four years that grants have been available to owners of protected structures to carry out repairs to their properties.

Until 2010, under the national conservation grants scheme, funding of up to €20,000 was available to a building owner to carry out work to prevent endangerment of the structure. In 2010 Dublin City Council was allocated €622,000 to distribute under the scheme.

Scheme replaced
In 2011 the scheme was scrapped and replaced by a structures-at-risk fund. Under this, money was given to local authorities to save just one or two buildings in their county that were at serious structural risk. Dublin City Council secured €80,000 and made emergency repairs to just one building, Aldborough House on Portland Row, an 18th-century mansion that had sustained considerable water damage due to the theft of roof lead.

The new fund, from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, has been named the Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme, and will operate similarly to the conservation grants.

A total fund of €692,000 has been made available for Dublin city. Applications can be made to the council for funding from €2,500 to €15,000 for the repair and conservation work but, unlike the previous scheme, applicants must match the grant with their own money.

There are nearly 9,000 buildings on the record of protected structures in Dublin city. In 2009, the last time a full audit was carried out by the council, 110 of those were judged to be endangered structures and were put on its at-risk list. A recent review of the list has resulted in the removal or 40 structures from the register.