An Taisce

An Taisce – The National Trust for Ireland

Formation	26 Sept. 1946 (provisional), 28 June 1948; 75 years ago (1948-06-28)
Type	Non-governmental organisation
Purpose	Environmentalism and Historic preservation
Headquarters	Foster Place
Location	Dublin, Ireland
President	Sean McDonagh (2022)
Chairperson of the Board	Philip Kearney (2022)
CEO	Gary Freemantle (2022)
Website	www.antaisce.org

An Taisce – The National Trust for Ireland (Irish pronunciation: [ənˠ ˈt̪ˠaʃcə]; "An Taisce" meaning "the store" or "the treasury"), established on a provisional basis in September 1946, and incorporated as a company based on an “association not for profit” in June 1948, is a charitable non-governmental organisation (NGO) active in the areas of the environment and built heritage in the Republic of Ireland. It considers itself the oldest environmental and non-governmental organisation in the country, and is somewhat similar to the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland but based more directly on the National Trust for Scotland. Its first president was the prominent naturalist Robert Lloyd Praeger.

An Taisce is a membership-based charity, rather than a state or semi-state organisation, or quango, but it does receive government and European Union funding for specific programmes, such as Blue Flag beaches,^[1] and Green Schools^[2] private-sector funding for, for example, the Irish Business Against Litter surveys, and a mix of State and private funding for the annual National Spring Clean.^[3][4] An Taisce has for decades also had a statutory role in certain planning and environmental processes in the country.

The work of the organisation includes policy recommendation and campaigning in the built and natural heritage areas, the holding in trust of relevant properties, and environmentally-relevant education. It has a number of local associations, which may assist in caring for properties, and monitor planning in their areas. An Taisce's headquarters are in Dublin's oldest surviving guildhall, the Tailors' Hall, which it helped to restore.