Standard Terms and Conditions of Grant Offers

Standard Terms and Conditions for organisations offered a Grant from the Heritage Council.

Once you have been notified that your application has been successful and you have been offered a grant, you will have to sign into your online account to accept the offer amount and agree to the terms and conditions of your grant. While we have standard Terms and Conditions for most projects, we may vary our terms depending on the specific circumstances of your project. If applicable, you will be told about any additional terms at offer stage.

You cannot start any work on your project until you have received a Grant Offer from the Heritage Council and agreed to the Terms and Conditions.

Standard Terms and Conditions for organisations offered a Grant from the Heritage Council

You must comply, or we will withdraw the grant.

  • If you do not comply with these conditions, and any included in your letter of offer, we will withdraw our grant offer. If this happens you must give us back any money, we have given you under that grant.
  •  You must confirm you are accepting a grant offer through the Heritage Council’s online grants system within 1 month of the offer date
  •  We will have decided to offer you a grant in good faith, based on the information you supplied. If any of that information was misleading, whether deliberately or accidentally, we have the right to withdraw the grant, and you must repay it.
  • Any change or modification to the proposed works/costs as set out in the application must be submitted by email to the Heritage Council for prior approval by grants@heritagecouncil.ie
  • We will only fund work that we have agreed in advance.
  • Only works commenced after Heritage Councils offer date and completed before the deadline can be covered by the grant award.
  • You must abide by any match funding rules which vary from scheme to scheme (please refer to the relevant scheme guidelines)

Reporting and Funding

To receive your grant funding, you must complete your project and submit a final report and claim for payment through the online grants system by 14 November 2025 (for most schemes in 2025 this will be 14 November 2025)

In addition, you must provide a Grants Update Report mid-way through the project to confirm that your project and budget are on track.

General Information

  • Reports and claims must be submitted through the online grants system
  • All documents you upload must be either PDFs or JPEGs
  • Individual files must be no bigger than 10mb each. Please ensure all commissioned reports can meet this requirement from the outset.
  • The applicant group must have a current bank/credit union account in their name to accept electronic payment of the grant. The applicant group/organisation is considered the payee, and funding will only be transferred into this bank/credit union account.
  • Invoices used to claim grant funding must be in the name of the applicant organisation.
  • If the grant is €10,000 or more, you will need to provide Tax Clearance verification for your organisation – this applies to applicant organisations from within and outside the state. Please refer to www.Revenue.ie for further information on applying for this. The exception to this rule is:
  • If Revenue has issued you with a CHY (charity) Tax Exemption
  • Your organisation is a government body.
  • You should know that we must make a return of all grant payments to Revenue. The Tax Numbers you provide are part of this data.
  • Proof that suppliers have been paid in advance of claiming your grant award is NOT a requirement for community groups and non-governmental organisations.
  • Proof that suppliers have been paid in advance of claiming your grant award is a requirement for Government bodies to comply with DPER Circular 13/2014 - Management of and Accountability for Grants from Exchequer Funds. A letter of Assurance, signed by both the Financial Controller and a Director of Services, confirming that payments have been made is required.

Progress report and interim payment

To receive part of your grant, you must submit a Progress Report online with evidence of the work undertaken and associated invoices. Otherwise, you can choose to receive all your grant when the project is completed.

We will pay the grant when work is satisfactorily completed.

You will have to submit a Final Report through the Heritage Council’s online grants system before the end of day on the deadline date. You will receive your grant after we have assessed the project work and found it to be satisfactory. That decision will be based on your detailed final report which must include evidence of:

  • your project output.
  • how you communicated and promoted your project, including acknowledgment of funding, through social media, local press etc.,
  • the in-person event you undertook for National Heritage Week
  • the number of employment/voluntary days supported by the grant.
  • the numbers of attendees at events
  • the invoices used to support your claim are in the name of the grantee organisation and relate to activities and services appropriate to the objectives of the grant scheme.
  • confirmation that you have not and will not use the invoices to support another claim for reimbursement from any other funder or funders, except as provided for in agreed joint-funding arrangements.

Communications and acknowledgements

You must promote your project and invite members of the public to learn about the project, and if possible, to take part. It is expected that you will do at least three separate public information announcements, i.e. to announce the good news, to provide an update halfway through the project and upon completion. You must attach evidence of this to your final report e.g., screenshots of social media posts etc. When promoting through social media please ensure that you tag the Heritage Council in all posts relating to the project.

Heritage Council signs and logos

You must include the logo of the Heritage Council on all communication materials in relation to the grant aided project. This includes:

  • brochures and leaflets
  • publicity materials
  • blogs
  • advertisements
  • websites
  • reports
  • invites
  • posters
  • press releases.
  • apps
  • videos
  • programmes.

All Heritage Council grant recipients should display the ‘funded by’ Heritage Council logo, according to the guidelines provided for its use, for further information and a downloadable copy of our Logo please refer to our page Acknowledging our Funding. 

National Heritage Week 2025

To be of benefit to the wider community, any project offered funding by the Heritage Council must register an in-person event during National Heritage Week, which in 2024 will take place from the 16 - 24 August 2025. Social or printed media must be used to promote events where members of the public are invited to learn about the project, and if possible, to take part. For further ideas and inspiration and to view resources go to the National Heritage Week website.

Laws, licences, consents, and policies

The law

You must conduct all your activities in line with the law.

Necessary paperwork

You must have obtained all necessary approvals, permissions, licences, or consents in advance of any works, copies of which must be provided to the Heritage Council.

Good practice

You must conduct all your work in line with the principles of good heritage practice and any other relevant national standards e.g., Code of Practice on Accessible Heritage Sites.

Biodiversity

You must submit any biodiversity data you collect, both native and invasive, to the National Biodiversity Data Centre. We may forward any bat survey you do using our funding, to National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

You must make sure to collect biodiversity data in a way that conforms to national standards.

Archaeological works

You must conduct any archaeological works in accordance with the National Monuments Act (1930-2014). You must report any new discoveries to the National Monuments Service and, or The National Museum.

Child protection policy

If your project involves children, you must comply with the Heritage Council’s Child Protection Policy 

Freedom of information

We comply with our obligations under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts. This means we are committed to being open about the grant assistance and support we provide. At the same time, we protect your personal data by making sure we store it securely and use it only to manage your grant application.

Education and promotion

You must authorise us to use project reports for educational or promotional purposes. We will give appropriate credits to the authors.

You must allow us to use photographs and videos.

You must authorise us to use photographs and videos for educational or promotional purposes. You must get the necessary consents to use photos and videos you submit in connection with your grant. Unless specified otherwise, we will assume that you have also got permission for us to use these photos and videos. You must keep a record of these consents. At a minimum, you must get:

  • the copyright owner’s consent for the Heritage Council to make use of the photo or video.
  • where the photo or video features people, the consent of those featured for the Heritage Council to make use of their image.
  • the consent of parents or guardians to use images or videos of children under 18 years of age.

When you submit your photos or videos to us as part of your project, please tell us if we need to credit the photographer, videographer or organisation that holds the copyright. If you do not give us this information, we will assume that no credit is needed.

Our only responsibility to your project is to provide funds.

If we give you a grant, you should understand that we are not responsible for any part of your project. Our only involvement is to provide funds, and you cannot take any action against us for any reason in relation to anything to do with your project. This is also true for anyone that participates in your project – we are not responsible or liable for any part of your project.

Your financial statements

For grantees who produce financial statements, details of your grant award must be recorded in the financial statements. These details should include the:

If any of your employees earn €60,000 or more

If you are getting a grant from us and any of your employees earn €60,000 or more each year, you must show this information in a table with your financial statements. This information should include the number of employees whose total employee benefits (excluding employer pension costs) were €60,000 or more; €70,000 or more; €80,000 or more and so on until you have reached the highest salary. You must also include the overall figure for total employer pension contributions. This applies even if salaries are not being funded by the Exchequer.

Keep your paperwork.

You may receive more than one grant from us over several years. You must keep all your records, including your bank statements and original invoices, for each grant for three years from the date of when the first grant is paid. You must submit them for inspection and make them available for audit to us when we ask for them or to someone, we name to look at them on our behalf. We will also expect you to give us a copy of all reports or other informational out-puts from your project.

Tax and other compliance.

The Government issues ‘circulars’ about how grants should be given and received. One of these is Circular 44/2006 ‘Tax Clearance Procedures Grants, Subsidies and Similar Type Payments’. You must show in your financial statements whether you comply with this circular and other relevant circular.

If the grant is 50% or more of your total income

If the grant we give you, added to any other income from Exchequer Funds is more than 50% or your total income, we will make your books and accounts available to the Comptroller and Auditor General if we are asked to do so.

If you are receiving co-funding

If you are getting funding from us as part of a co-funding arrangement, every year you must tell us in writing:

  • where you are getting that funding
  • how much that funding is.
  • that you are not getting funding from two different sources for the same project.

This declaration should also state if the total amount of funds you are getting from the Exchequer is more than 50% of your total income.

Income from other sources

If you get and spend funds from sources other than us, you must show this in your project budget.

Onward grants

If you intend to pay grants to other people or projects using the funding, we give you, you must give us details of these onward grants and their recipients or proposed recipients. This should include details of the terms and conditions applying to these onward payments.

Statement of principles

Please read the ‘Statement of Principles for Grantees,’