A new phase of the €15m restoration on St. Mel's Cathedral, Longford, has commenced.

According to www.cisireland.com trial cleaning tests for geo thermal heating, steel supports for the columns and ground investigation has began as another phase of the restoration.

The restoration work is to repair the Longford Cathedral following a fire in 2009, which completely gutted the building. A full design team of consultants have been appointed on the project. The restoration works is expected to take in the region of four to five years to complete.

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In addition the Heritage Council has confirmed a grant of €100,000 for work to preserve the statues of St. Mel's Cathedral.

The money will be used to clean and restore the statues which are on the front of the Cathedral and date back to the 1890s and it will also facilitate work on the portico.

These were some of the few parts of the Cathedral that were not seriously damaged by the fire.

A spokesperson has revealed that they hope to submit a number of planning applications shortly before more serious work can start.

However the cleaning and restoration of the statues is expected to start in the coming weeks and should only take a few months to complete.

For further information see : www.cisireland.com

(LB/GK)