Derelict Site Registers — Public Home Page
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Think a building deserves protection but it is not on the Record of Protected Structures? Under Sections 54 and 55 of the Planning & Development Act 2000, a planning authority can add a structure to its Record of Protected Structures (RPS) at any time — it does not have to wait for a development plan review. Any member of the public can ask it to do so. This page explains how, who to contact in each of the 31 local authorities, and gives you a ready-to-use letter template.
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What this is for
The Record of Protected Structures (RPS) is the statutory list kept by every planning authority as part of its County / City Development Plan. Only structures on the RPS get the full protection of Part IV of the Act — a building can be centuries old, locally loved, or recorded by the NIAH and still have no statutory protection at all.
If you believe a structure is of special architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social or technical interest, you can ask the council to add it.
- Section 51 — the duty on every planning authority to keep an RPS as part of its development plan.
- Section 53 — the Minister (through the NIAH) may recommend additions; the authority must consider such recommendations.
- Section 54 — a planning authority may add a structure to the RPS at any time, outside the development plan cycle.
- Section 55 — the procedure: notice to the owner/occupier, public notice, submissions, a Chief Executive's report, and a decision of the elected members.
- Section 12 — additions can also be sought as a submission during a development plan review.
- Section 81 — if a whole street or area is at issue, an Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) may be the better tool.
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Why this matters if the building is under threat: once the council issues a notice under Section 55, the building becomes a proposed protected structure and is treated as protected from that moment. Where demolition or damage is imminent, say so clearly and ask the council to initiate the Section 55 procedure urgently.
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Step-by-step: how to make your request
- Confirm it is not already protected. Check the council's RPS (links at the end of this page) — and note that curtilage structures, and buildings in an ACA, may already have some protection.
- Check the NIAH (now run by the National Built Heritage Service). Search buildingsofireland.ie for the building — the NIAH and the National Built Heritage Service (NBHS) survey are the same thing. A NIAH record — especially a Regional, National or International rating — is the single strongest supporting argument, because the Minister's recommendations under Section 53 flow from these surveys. Note the NIAH Reg. No. Unlike the RPS, you cannot formally apply to have a building added to the NIAH — it is a state survey carried out county by county, and the most you can do is flag a building to the NBHS ([email protected]). A NIAH listing is not legal protection in itself; it only feeds the Minister's Section 53 recommendations. So don't wait for a survey — go straight to the council under Sections 54 and 55, using any NIAH record as supporting evidence.
- Identify the right local authority and address your letter to the Conservation Officer / Architectural Conservation Officer in the Planning Department (copy the Heritage Officer if there is one).
- Set out the grounds for protection. Match your case to the categories in Section 51: architectural, historical, archaeological, artistic, cultural, scientific, social, technical interest.
- Assemble the evidence. Dated photographs (exterior, and interior if lawfully accessible), historic maps (OSI 6-inch and 25-inch), Griffith's Valuation, trade directories, census records, newspaper archives, local history publications, and any earlier survey references.
- Say what should be protected. Name the specific elements — façade, shopfront, roof structure, joinery, plasterwork, railings, outbuildings, garden walls, gates — and whether the curtilage should be included.