 John Grizzlyne. Donegal County Council's award-winning Thatch Repair Grant Scheme has opened for applications. It's actually now in its sixth year and the scheme helps owners and occupiers of thatched cottages and other types of dwellings with maintenance and repair. And it's open now and will be until the 8th of March. Joe Gollacher, Heritage Officer with Donegal County Council is with me in the studio. Sixth year now, Joe, for the scheme and it's proven to be a success which is great. Yeah, there's been a lot of interest in the scheme. I think we've supported over a hundred properties in the last five years, the first five years of the scheme with small scale repairs, you know, so it would be repairs to the Thatch, you know, maybe at the eaves or at the ridge, which are kind of vulnerable areas where water sometimes can get in or around the gables, around the chimney again is another vulnerable area, so again repairs to that. It might be sort of the netting or the ropes that need adjusting and need fixing, so again we kind of concentrate on that. Or even roof carpentry as well, like you know, that supports the roof, that's really important. There's a lot to a thatched roof, isn't there? And you just, when you outline all those different things, I suppose that's what the scheme's about, helping some way or other. And it's deceptive as well, because a lot of people think, oh thatch, that's quite a simple method of construction. But actually it's a whole series of layers, like you've got the, you've got very often, in the case of Donegal, you've got A-frame roof trusses supporting the roof, and then you have timbers going then, sort of between the trusses and going to the gables. You have the straw then laid on top of that, which kind of forms the foundation of the roof. And then you have the straw then laid on top of that, and then you have these network of ropes where rope thatching or scallops where there's scallop thatching. So it's really quite intricate, and a lot of people dismiss it as quite straightforward, but it's actually indicative of the fact that we're actually we've only got a, we really need rope thatchers in the county. That's how serious the situation is. We've only got one full-time rope thatcher and two part-time rope thatchers that I know of for the whole county. And we've got over 300 buildings in the county historic thatch. So that's a big workload. Are there plans to set up training for thatchers? Yeah, we're working with the thatch school in Port Nuna that's just been established, and they're trying to get things off the ground there to train thatchers. And again, we're talking to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and they're behind the initiative as are the Heritage Council. So we'd be really keen to see, perhaps maybe initially short courses being established there, but in time the idea is that we get a credited courses there where thatchers from all over the country can come there and get training and put it into practice as well, and they sort of provide that essential service in, not just in Donegal, but around the country. I actually grew up in a thatch cottage, but it wasn't anything fancy. It was the rushes that we put on. Now any houses that have a thatch on them, it'll not be rushes anymore. It'll be proper straw, and it'll be thatched properly. And that's where this scheme comes in. It's to keep the small things that you mentioned in check and make sure that it's, well, A, that it's doing the job that it's supposed to, that it's not leaking, and B, that has an aesthetic nice look to it. Well, absolutely. That's right. And again, rushes are still used in some outbuildings. Some people sell thatch with rushes. And again, unfortunately, there seems to be an increasing abundance of rushes as well. So it'd be a very good use to put rushes too. But you're right, like I mean, I suppose in West Donegal, which you'd find is you'd find a lot more now in terms of straw, whether it's wheat, rye or barley straw that tend to be used there. In the eastern and parts of Anishone, which you tend to find as flax would be kind of one of the dominant thatching materials in those areas. So it does vary from region to region. So the other thing about it is I suppose, you know, that's that's one of the other characteristics that you see, both in terms of the materials that are used, and also in terms of the thatching style, you know, rope thatching tends to dominate on the west and in the north of the county in the south, in the east of the county, it tends to be scallop thatching. So two different methods. So very often, now you can you can tell the, you know, the work of a particular thatcher by the way that he addresses the thatch, like how he puts the thatch on. And it's really quite remarkable, like, you know, once you get your eye attuned to it, you can say, Oh, that's, that's so-and-so that did that in that sense. So it's quite, it's quite interesting. It is a thing of beauty to pass a house that's been, say, newly thatched or recently thatched, and it's nicely finished. It's a thing of beauty. Yeah. And the other thing is too, like in terms of regional landscape character as well, because they're thatched in different styles and with different materials, if somebody blindfolded you and drove you to a particular location, take the blindfold off, and if the thatch was thatched in the style of the area, you should be able to tell roughly where you are on the catech. No, you should. I don't think I would. Well, you can come out with us some day, John, and we'll show you around. We'll show you some of the differences. One of insurance is a big one, you have a thatch really fits really hard to ensure. So where are we with that? That, that was true. That's changing all the same. The department now are, they're having an initiative and they're speaking to the insurance companies to try and, to try and bring down the cost of insurance and also to increase the number of insurance companies that are providing thatch insurance, because a number of companies, thatch companies, or a number of insurance companies, excuse me, don't provide thatch insurance. So again, the first thing is to bring them into the market and then to bring down the cost of the insurance itself. And one of the things that the department have done is that they've produced this booklet on fire safety and thatch structures. And the idea of that is to, to tell, say to homeowners, this is how you can decrease your premiums. If you can implement good practice. Okay. It's a bit like having a car and if you have an alarm in the car, your premiums should be a bit less. Exactly. But they go further than that. This, this, this guidance is only issued last year. And now what they've done this year, they have a pilot scheme whereby property owners, if you own a historic thatch in County Johnneagall, you can request a visit from an engineer from the department who will give you advice on how to apply the guidance here to your property. It's a service, it's free of charge. So again, we're an engineer to come out and to assess your property. And again, that's a big saving. And again, they'll be able to give you advice. And also the engineer that comes out is also involved in the department's thatching grant because as well as our thatch repair grant scheme, there is also some national thatching grants as well that are available to try and help offset the cost of the retaining historic thatch. So you have the built heritage investment scheme, which for the first time last year, essentially funded six re-thatches of historic thatch in County Johnneagall. And they'll be hopefully doing the same again this year. The applications have just closed for that. That will be six complete re-thatches. Now again, it won't be destroying the historic thatch. It'll be working sort of with the historic thatch and just putting on a new layer of thatch on it. But again, that can be quite expensive to homeowners. So again, that's another support this year. The department also offer the attach for the renewal or repair of historic thatch. So if you live in a thatch property or you have rented long term, again, you can apply for that at any stage throughout the year. And again, there'll be grants available. I think it's up to about three and a half thousand that are available for that. There's also the Irish Georgian Society that despite its name have also funded thatch properties in the past. So the number of sources of supports that are there are increasing as well. Thatch insurance is an issue, but like I said, they are addressing that. So if anybody has any questions or would like some advice on that, please get in touch with the Heritage Office and we'll be glad to point you in the right direction. What you want to avoid is a scenario where you can run with buckets or pans in the middle of winter and and then hope and then get somebody to come and patch things up. So try to try to avoid that scenario. Absolutely. Are we are we in danger of or are there a lot of instances where people have a thatch dwelling and instead of maybe just something simple that's said, you know what, I'm just going to put on zinc or I'm just going to put on slates or something and it could be something relatively simple. Yeah, I think that's really important like you know as well. That's why these supports are here and that's why we instigated thatch repair grand scheme was really not just as well to provide them with funding, but also to give them advice and say look at these are the types of supports that are available. One of the things that we do find is that some people, some homeowners have removed their historic thatch and put on slate, like you said, or put on 10. Now again, homeowner should be aware that you actually need consent to do that because it constitutes was called a material alteration to the building. So again, please do contact the Heritage Office or the Conservation Office of Donegal County Council. We'll be able to talk you through that. Again, the idea is to try and retain the historic thatch because the other thing is if you take off a thatch roof particularly in Donegal because of the low pitch, the rounded nature of the roof, you very often have to change the pitch of the roof if you put on slate to about a 45 degree angle. That can alter the character of the building enormously and can actually lead to additional costs as well. So it's really important to get the advice early on and we'll be glad to give you that. We'll be glad to come out and have a look at your property and give you the best advice that we can. Someone was asking can you put thatch on a new build, a new build house. Is this allowed? Oh yes, absolutely. Yeah, I mean that's the there's increasing number of those in many respects actually all across the country. And again, sometimes it's less of an issue in terms of insurance because again you very often put on a fire proof layer underneath and so on. So yes, that can absolutely be done but again, I suppose it's just for our historic thatch repair grand scheme and a lot of the other thatch repair grand schemes, they wouldn't really apply to modern thatch. It would be more to try and retain the historic thatch because that's really kind of the manifestation of our heritage and that's what we really want to protect. You know, that's what's immediate at risk. Now maybe 50 years down the line, they will become part of our heritage and absolutely they will qualify but at the moment the focus is on historic thatch. And where should people go if you want to weave it more information to the council's website? Yeah, if you go to dunygolcoco.ie forward slash heritage, all the details are there and like you said, the thatch repair grand scheme is open until the noon on the 8th of March Friday, the 8th of March, the application forms are online. We've kept them as straightforward as we can. We just ask you to provide some photographs as well because we always get more applications and we can fund. So, you know, we'll try and do a number of site visits, but we'll whittle down the list initially based on the photographs and the information that you provide. Okay, brilliant scheme is open until what date? Friday, March, the 8th. Yeah, March, the 8th. Thanks, Joe. Thanks very much, John. Enter the Virgin Media Playhouse for unbelievable