As Minister for Heritage and Local Government, with the collaboration of The Heritage Council, I am delighted to announced that Carlow is one of 11 historic towns that will share €1.3 million funding under the 2023 Historic Towns Initiative (HTI). The funding will support the rebuilding of local economies through heritage-led regeneration, and will also address vacancy and dereliction with heritage as the focal point.
In a week where our national heritage is being celebrated across the world, it’s fitting that we are marking another step forward in the progress we’re making nationally to preserve and restore our heritage. It’s been a key focus of mine, and of the Green Party in government, to pursue a ‘Town Centre First’ policy to ensure that our regional towns are as vibrant as they are viable, and that we tackle vacancy and dereliction in a sustainable way that helps us meet our climate goals.
We want towns like Carlow to be attractive and thriving places for people to live and work, and to visit and spend time, and the Historic Towns Initiative is a key initiative in unlocking Carlow’s potential for sustainable growth.
For each of the 11 towns that received funding today, the work that will be undertaken will not just enhance the look and feel of the town, it will also serve to tackle the high levels of vacancy and dereliction which have become such a blight on our rural and regional towns. It’s important that we do this in a way that puts the heritage of these historic towns at the centre of our efforts, and the Historic Towns Initiative does this in a really collaborative way by working with community groups and our local authority partners to look at the best ways of bringing these buildings back into use. The funding announced today is an important first step in that process for Carlow!