This sounds wonderful - and it is - but Starrett asks with a bewilderment that refuses to settle into resignation: "How is it that the public don't seem aware of what we are doing? Why is there such confusion in The Irish Times about our role? Why are we still being confused with Duchas, the Heritage Service? Why are we being confused with An Taisce? Are we responsible for not being known? Is it that we're too new? Are we expecting too much too soon? Above all, why does the public have such a narrow view of what heritage means?"
Michael Starrett, chief executive of the Heritage Council, is exasperated. But his frustration has nothing to do with the council's performance - it's more to do with the public's perception of it. Far too watchful to be described as complacent, he is confident that this independent, semi-State body established under the Heritage Act of 1995 "with a statutory responsibility to propose policies and priorities for the identification, protection, preservation and enhancement of the national heritage" has already asserted itself in the national interest and has been consistently delivering on a range of stated aims and objectives.
It is not a pressure group, but it does act on and, if necessary, question relevant Government policies. It also lodges appeals on strategic planning issues, most notably at Doonbeg, Co Kerry and at Durrow, Co Offaly.
Projects have been launched; conservation and environmental issues have been addressed; practical assistance has been provided in the form of advice and grants from an annual budget of under £8 million.
A wide range of quality papers and guidelines has been published. Important books have been partly funded. The council has an overview and applies this to its specific areas of expertise. Nothing is looked at in isolation - a conservation issue will also be considered in the relevant environmental context "and quite often the economic context as well".
The council's staff go out in the field and are active on planning, architectural, archaeological, museums, wildlife, educational and policy issues. They are also accessible. They don't need permission to speak to the press.
"All I ever stress," says Starrett, "is that they reflect fully the council's policies - as all the council's policies stand up to the most rigorous scrutiny."
This sounds wonderful - and it is - but Starrett asks with a bewilderment that refuses to settle into resignation: "How is it that the public don't seem aware of what we are doing? Why is there such confusion in The Irish Times about our role? Why are we still being confused with Duchas, the Heritage Service? Why are we being confused with An Taisce? Are we responsible for not being known? Is it that we're too new? Are we expecting too much too soon? Above all, why does the public have such a narrow view of what heritage means?"
As a bid to counter this lack of understanding, the council published a policy paper, "Heritage Awareness in Ireland", in early 2000. The findings, based on a survey, suggested the public's response to the word "heritage" did not go far beyond vague notions referring to the past, history and the historic built environment. A cultural dimension embracing music and language also emerged, while the natural environment, landscape and the wildlife that inhabits it were largely overlooked.
Little connection was made by the public between landscape and heritage. "There is also some confusion over who is responsible for the heritage. Most people see it as being in public ownership and therefore the responsibility of the Government," says Starrett, who is anxious to encourage the perception that heritage is not just about "conserving churches and castles".
The public and the press are not alone in their confusion about the Heritage Council's role and function. When asked by The Irish Times if they had a heritage or conservation officer, several members of the respective staffs of Kilkenny County Council and Kilkenny Corporation were adamant they did - "It's called the Heritage Council, it's based here in Kilkenny."
The Heritage Council does not act as heritage officer for Kilkenny City or for the county. It has, however, initiated, in partnership with local authorities, the heritage officer programme, under which a number of county heritage officers have been appointed. Kilkenny to date does not have one.
Twelve heritage officers have been appointed, serving 14 counties. Each is preparing a heritage city/county plan to be presented to their local authority.
The Heritage Council is an independent body with a national remit. That it is currently based in one of Ireland's most remarkable survivors, the Tudor merchant complex, Rothe House, with its two courtyards, is both fitting and somewhat ironic. Rothe House testifies to highly enlightened conservation and restoration efforts on the part of the Kilkenny Archaeological and Historical Society.
Kilkenny, Ireland's famous medieval city, although proud possessor of a rich heritage and a wonderful range of buildings, is also bearing the scars of poor planning. Starrett is aware of this.
"We cannot be seen to be favouring Kilkenny," he says. "We are a national body. Our approach to improving the standard of design of buildings and to improving the quality of planning decisions focuses on partnership with local authorities on a national scale - all through heritage appraisal of the development plans and through co-operation with the Irish Planning Institute."
The council's officers work from the third of the three restored buildings at Rothe House, in an open-plan arrangement. There are four standing committees: wildlife, archaeology, architectural heritage and inland waterways.
Even the heavy blanket curtain shielding the back of the front door is helpless against the vicious east winds. Earlier in the day, Starrett had been dealing with the impact of the rural tax incentive plan on the upper Shannon. He is very concerned about the implications of development on that region.
The scheme introduced large tax incentives. The respective development plans of the five counties involved had not anticipated the rate and scale of development proposed. It is serious. Meanwhile, Liam Lysaght, the council's ecologist, is engaged in a long telephone conversation with a farmer. They are discussing how best the council can address the relationship between heritage and agriculture.
The farming community lies at the heart of nature conservation. Last summer more than 120 delegates from across Europe attended the Heritage Council's European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism at Ennistymon, Co Clare.
The conference approached the topic with consummate practicality, the sessions taking place on eight working farms. The Burren presents a unique example of balancing the local community's needs with the necessity of protecting habitats of international importance.
Lysaght makes no secret of his belief that farming holds the key to the future of our natural heritage. "A more broadly-based agricultural policy could quite easily shift the emphasis from production-based subsidies to one that places more value on the non-production aspects of agriculture, such as the maintenance of a diverse landscape and its associated natural heritage," he says.
Still busy on the phone, Lysaght points to the council's need to consult closely with farmers on local issues while at the same time trying to direct national and European agricultural policy. "If properly directed, it has the greatest capability to protect our natural heritage. The challenge for the Heritage Council is to achieve greater compatibility between agriculture and the natural heritage," he says.
Many factors are playing a part in the decline of various Irish birds. Meadowland, once a commonplace country beauty, has effectively disappeared, as have mixed farming and extensive grazing systems. The lack of care in the management of our hedgerow network is another concern. Both are valuable habitat areas. The increasing specialisation of agriculture is having a tragic impact on birds restricted to farmland habitats such as the Corn Bunting, now extinct in Ireland as a breeding bird. Lysaght points to the decline of the barn owl, while seed-eating farmland birds such as the linnet, turtle dove, grey partridge, red-poll and yellowhammer have all been affected. To ensure the protection of farmland wildlife, Lysaght urges the need to develop and utilise multi-disciplinary skills to integrate ecology and agricultural science. The publication of A Guide to Habitats in Ireland is intended to raise awareness of the natural heritage values of the wider countryside outside of areas designated as SACs (Special Areas of Conservation).
The guide also draws particular attention to turloughs, calcareous grasses commonly found in areas with shallow, rocky limestone soils and to Ireland's admittedly uncommon lagoons and saline lakes. Lysaght has been critical of the Government's policy of speedy afforestation, with its emphasis on conifer planting.
"If not properly managed, this has the potential to overwhelm the landscape rather than integrate into it. We need a much more balanced conifer-to-broadleafed ratio in our planting," he says.
If there is a public perception of the Heritage Council, it lies in the context of planning. The Heritage Council has been seen to oppose the granting of a planning application if a national monument is at risk and Duchas decides against objecting - as happened last year over the proposed leisure centre at the site of the Columban monastic settlement at Durrow, Co Offaly. Plans for that development were withdrawn.
What is the Heritage Council's relationship with Duchas? "Our relationship with Duchas should be one that is complementary," says Lysaght.
But is it? "With any new agency that is set up when there is an existing heritage service, it takes time to build a positive working relationship. The Heritage Council and Duchas have been working to achieve that." But there are those who suggest the two bodies cancel each other out.
"Duchas deals primarily with the management of State-owned properties, whereas the Heritage Council functions on a national scale in dealing with individually-owned property in partnership, and dealing with a wide and diverse range of owners, as well as co-operating with government departments and local authorities on the way in which they affect our heritage. We are working on a broader landscape approach. It is through a Heritage Council initiative that the significance of the archaeological landscape, as opposed to the protection of individual sites and monuments has assumed real significance," says Lysaght.
Paddy Mathews, by profession a planner, is the council's planning officer, and explains the council's planning procedures. "A decision was taken by it [the council] shortly after it was appointed, to focus on providing advice to central and local government on planning issues rather than comment on individual planning applications. Having only one planner on the staff does not allow council to get involved in a substantial number of individual cases. In addition to this policy advice, council comments on about 20 applications a year. These applications are generally large developments that are likely to set a precedent for future decisions."
The Heritage Council's policy objectives are obvious. "We want to change how decisions are made about development - whether it is a road, a golf course or a housing estate. There is no reason why our landscape cannot absorb all the developments we need. As we are one of the smallest population densities in Europe, it is a question of how any proposed development is planned, designed and built," says Mathews.
Heritage, he warns, will continue to be perceived as a barrier to development "as long as we fail to plan effectively for it".
Road planning remains a contentious issue. What is the Heritage Council's policy? "The council," he says, "is currently assessing the NRA (National Road Authority) road planning guidelines to ensure heritage is taken into consideration at the earliest possible stage and that potential conflicts are identified and reconciled." Starrett, who was born in Strabane, Co Tyrone in 1954 and educated in Derry, comes from a largely landscape policymaking background. His first job was with the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland, working in the Mourne Mountains as a countryside warden.
Is public awareness of heritage stronger in the North than in the South? "They haven't carried out a similar survey to ours, although we hope to jointly do a 32-county one," he says. "I have been in discussion with the Department of the Environment in the North about this. My perception is that there are great similarities in attitudes. I know in the North of Ireland they like the idea of having an independent statutory body - like the council - that deals in an integrated way both culturally and naturally with heritage. One of the initial projects I did more than 20 years ago was to survey the number of derelict house sites in the Mournes. This information is still used as a basis for some planning applications in that area."
From the North, he went to Edinburgh as a countryside planner for the Lothian regional council. Two years later, Starrett was appointed the first director of the Pentland Hills regional park - an area of about 25,000 acres of upland, most of which is in private ownership.
From there, he returned to Ireland in 1996 to take up his post as the first chief executive of the Heritage Council, having also worked in France on secondment, devising systems for management of national and regional parks.
"Landscape to me incorporates where people live, what they see," he says. "It affects their quality of life. Our buildings and monuments are very much part of that landscape and are as relevant to it as the rivers, woodlands and mountains. The fundamental thing we have proposed is an integrated policy on Ireland's landscape - and the way in which that landscape can be managed and developed in the future." That policy paper was presented to the Minister for Arts and Heritage, Sile de Valera, last October.
Buildings not only affect landscape, they are, for better or worse, part of it. The council policy to protect historic buildings also includes a "Buildings at Risk" register, which is not confined to period buildings but includes buildings of heritage interest, regardless of age. Currently there are about 700 buildings on it.
Mary Hanna, an architect and the council's architectural officer, has several exciting ongoing projects. From the restoration of Ballyfin House, Co Laois, an early 19thcentury classical mansion built by Sir Charles Coote, to the conservation of a large thatched vernacular farmhouse circa 1705 at Mayglass, Co Wexford. Included somewhat surprisingly on the "Buildings at Risk" register is Clonfert Cathedral, in Co Galway. It is famous for its magnificent 12th-century Romanesque doorway, but as Hanna says: "There are far more complex issues there than the conservation of that doorway."
She is "very worried" about the plight of Freshford Church, built about 1730, but retaining a fine 12th-century Romanesque arch in its west gable. She believes the biggest obstacle she has to contend with is the public's wary attitude towards conservation. "People don't really understand it. We have to change this," she says.
In an ideal world, what would Michael Starrett hope for? "I'd prefer more funding. The Heritage Council is always looking for additional money," he says. He feels the council is using its resources well and is pleased with the number of books it has sponsored.
"Some of them are important local histories and record old customs and practises. Our educational programme is very successful; we have a Heritage in Schools programme which encourages interest in local heritage."
Heightening awareness of heritage remains Starrett's priority. As well as, of course, increasing awareness as to who the Heritage Council is and what it does.