The closing date for the first tranche of the GLAS Traditional Farm Buildings Grant is Friday 6 May, leaving very little time for entrants to submit their plans.

Donal Kiely, a dairy farmer from Cork, used the REPS Traditional Farm Buildings Grant to restore an outbuilding that dates back to 1910.

Initially used as a stable and oat store, the building has been given a new lease of life as a workshop on the ground floor and a discussion group classroom upstairs.

“It was a building that had lost its use on a modern dairy farm and dragged down the appearance of the place,” said Kiely, who milks over 200 pedigree Holsteins. “Now it gives people a positive impression of the yard.”

The €18,000 grant he received covered 75% of the cost. Without, it Kiely would not have taken on the project.

“I’m a typical farmer, with four young kids, I couldn’t just tell my wife Colette that I was going spending €24,000 on an outbuilding just because I wanted to,” he said.

“The grant took the sting out of the spend and without it the building would have been knocked or a galvanised roof put on it.”

An architect recommended by the Heritage Council visited the site three times, costing 10% of the overall spend, and completed the plan for the project.

Before work could begin, a bat report had to be completed, costing €200, and the main contractors brought in were a carpenter and a stonemason to point all the stone.

“It was very simple; I just had to present a tax clearance cert, all my receipts and documentation of my hours to the heritage council. The grant money came through in less than 24 hours.”