Two decisions this month have brought into sharp focus the parlous state of our architectural heritage - one was the disgraceful demolition by the Collen Group of the Wiggins Teape factory in Dublin and the other was Sligo County Council's perverse refusal to retain a rare 200 year-old farmhouse in Easkey.

Neither building was listed for protection, so the Collen Group could get away with pulverising a fine 1930s neo-classical building on East Wall Road just three days after An Bord Pleanala, having spent more than a year considering the case, ruled that it was of architectural and historical significance and should be retained.

Similarly, Sligo County Council voted to reject an earnest plea from An Taisce to preserve a two-storey farmhouse in Easkey dating from circa 1800 - because it was in the way of a housing scheme -- and on the basis of a grim reaper report by consultant engineer Patrick Healy, who said it was derelict and had "reached the end of its useful life".

The same could be said about any uncared-for historic building. And now, pathetically, the council is to "replicate" the farmhouse after it has been demolished. What meaning will this empty gesture have when the actual, existing building could quite easily be restored and put to good use, if the will was there to do it? As for the brutal demise of Wiggins Teape, the Collen Group simply decided - in a fit of pique, it would seem - to get rid of the central argument against a run-of-the-mill, but no doubt lucrative, office development it wants to build on the East Wall Road site. What An Bord Pleanala thought about it was irrelevant.

Wiggins Teape should have been listed as a protected structure under the 1999 Planning and Development Act; unfortunately, it wasn't. But even this "well-drafted, strongly and unambiguously worded and potentially dynamic" piece of legislation is in danger of dying on the vine of ignorance, ineptitude and sheer cowardice.

The description of the Act and its potential to bring about change was given by conservation architect James Kelly at the recent annual conference of the Irish Planning Institute in Kilkenny - another historic town that has seen more than its fair share of tragic stories in recent years, as the real gives way to the fake.

Mr Kelly's principal complaint was that, whatever about the quality of the 1999 Act itself, there is a general unwillingness on the part of local authorities to implement it. And he cited numerous examples across the length and breadth of Ireland to show that councillors and county managers need to open their closed minds.

Astonishingly, as he noted, there isn't a single protected structure in the whole of Co Donegal - not even the Grianan of Aileach! And in Co Leitrim, the county manager recently refused to add a single building recommended by An Taisce to its already miniscule list of protected structures.

Limerick Corporation has left a sizeable proportion of the city's stock of Georgian buildings off its lists, perhaps because so many of them have been defaced by aluminium or PVC windows - even in Newtown Pery's showpiece,

The Crescent; windows can be changed, but buildings can't be brought back after they've gone.

Kinsale is "a particular horror story", said Mr Kelly.

Not only has it failed to transcribe its inadequate list on to the record of protected structures, but its historic value has been greatly diminished by poor-quality replacement buildings, windows and shopfronts "to such an extent that its ambience is reminiscent of Disneyland".

Nenagh Urban District Council recently reviewed its development plan and pig-headedly refused to make any additions to the lists, despite a detailed submission from An Taisce.

Even Nenagh Barracks, dating from 1800, remains unprotected - and similar glaring omissions can be found in other cities and towns throughout the State.

Last October, councillors in Ballina voted against listing three of its most important historic buildings because this might undermine their development potential. "If we list this building, we will imprison this man because he will not be able to let it go downhill under the Act and he will not be able to develop it," one of them argued.

What is becoming clear, as Mr Kelly noted, is that councillors are making alterations to proposed lists for reasons other than architectural merit - which is supposed to be the principal criterion - "and that when lists are put to them for approval, prime properties are being deselected on the basis of commercial lobbying".

Also alive and well, as he put it, are old prejudices about the legacies of "belted earls". Thus, a member of Sligo Corporation argued that an important early 19th century warehouse complex should not be listed because it was "a relic of slavery"; it also happened to be in the way of Sligo's immensely destructive "inner relief road" scheme.

Mr Kelly gave due credit to Cork Corporation, Tipperary UDC and Clare, Louth and Meath county councils for their efforts to implement the legislation. But he said it was only in Dublin that the issue of alterations to protected structures is properly enforced, "largely due to the sterling efforts of conservation officers".

In many other cases, given that county managers and town clerks are not putting buildings forward for listing, "councillors do not even need to reject new lists because there are none.

"What's urgently needed here, he argued, "is a serious and fundamental change in the mind-set of the top officials running local government."

But even if that were to happen, Mr Kelly suggested the 1999 Act should be amended to withdraw the power of councillors to approve or reject lists, thereby "relieving them of the burden of unwelcome lobbying". Instead, he said, this power should be vested in a statutory body such as Duchas or the Heritage Council.

Though poorly financed and ill-equipped for the mammoth task of preparing a national inventory, Duchas was doing its best under very trying conditions "and what might be charitably regarded as a less-than-ideal level of political support" while the Heritage Council was "not afraid to show its teeth" occasionally.

Michael Starrett, the council director, agreed that there is a weakness in having local authorities charged with responsibility for listing as well as planning and the award of conservation grants. Such anomalies, if not addressed, "will be detrimental in the long term to our heritage", he warned.

It would be difficult to disagree with this assessment or with James Kelly's conclusion that the 1999 Act is "a great success", at least on paper. All that's needed is the will to implement it - or to change the arrangements under which the legislation operates if these are shown to be demonstrably ineffective, as they clearly are.