Heritage Fund

The Heritage Fund Act, 2001 established the Heritage Fund. The purpose of the fund is to provide resources for use by the principal State collecting cultural institutions in acquiring, for the national collections, items of moveable heritage such as artefacts, manuscripts, books and works of art that are both rare and of national importance, that are outstanding examples of their type, that are pre-eminent in their class and that otherwise could not be acquired.

The Act provided for a total fund of €12.697m over a five-year period, broken down between an allocation of €3,809,214 in the financial year 2001, €2,539,476 in each of the financial years 2002, 2003, 2004, and finally a sum of €1,269,738 in the financial year 2005. Funding for the Heritage Fund is held in the Heritage Fund Public Investment Account, an interest bearing account.

The five eligible institutions that may benefit from the Heritage Fund are:

• National Archives
• National Gallery of Ireland
• National Library of Ireland
• National Museum of Ireland
• Irish Museum of Modern Art

The Fund allows for the acquisition of heritage objects, above a valuation of €317,435. The following heritage items have been acquired to date using the resources in the Fund.

• *The Joyce Papers were acquired using combined resources committed from the Heritage Fund and a private donor availing of Section 1003 of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997.