Mr. John Connolly:

I thank the Chairman and the members for inviting us to come here today. The subject of our presentation is the same as that of previous speakers, the saving of No. 16 Moore Street. We had the pleasure of meeting the Chairman of the all-party Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Ciarán Lynch, and the secretary of the committee, Mr. Eugene Ó Cruadhlaoich, last May for the purpose of further briefing the committee on the two alternatives that are currently before the Minister with regard to securing the above objective. In the course of the briefing we outlined to the officers of the Oireachtas committee that the first of the two alternatives the Minister is evaluating dates from the time our Save No. 16 Moore Street Committee was formed, which was around 2003, while the other group's option dates from around 2008 or 2009.

The first option had its genesis in a call by us to the members of Dublin City Council and Oireachtas Éireann to desist from permitting the demolition of No. 16 Moore Street and its environs to make way for a regeneration project for the north O'Connell Street-mid-Moore Street-Ilac Centre area in the form of a mixed-use development of commercial and residential accommodation. Full planning permission had been granted in 1998-99 for the demolition of No. 16 Moore Street and its contextual buildings. Our proposal to the authorities for the implementation of an alternative vision, which would fulfil both the need to regenerate and the need to commemorate, was that a specialist conservation consultancy be identified and appointed for the specific purpose of carrying out a detailed examination of the area and bringing to the council a report and recommendations on how a balance could be correctly and properly struck between the requirement of the council to regenerate the semi-derelict and decaying northern end of the capital city's main street and the need for correct, proper and appropriate commemoration of the events that were seminal to the genesis of our State, including the Provisional Government's decision to surrender, an important part of which took place at No. 16 Moore Street.

A firm of expert conservation consultants was selected and appointed. It duly carried out its work and reported back to Dublin City Council in the form of a detailed bound report which recommended not only that No. 16 Moore Street should be returned to its 1916 specification and to pristine condition and used in perpetuity as a commemorative place for the events that unfolded on, in and around Moore Street in the latter days of Easter week 1916, but also that No. 16's three contextual buildings, Nos. 14,15 and 17, should receive the same preservation treatment, although without specifying that these three buildings should form an integral operational part of the commemorative project. The report and recommendations by the expert conservation consultancy received a rapturous welcome and endorsement not only from all 52 members of Dublin City Council but also unanimously from our own committee's members.

The proposal that was specified by the expert consultants as striking an appropriate balance between regeneration and commemoration was subsequently dealt with by the various authorities and players with jurisdiction acting in co-operation with Dublin City Council planning department, An Bord Pleanála, Chartered Land Limited, the Save No. 16 Moore Street Committee, the members of Dublin City Council and the concerned public. The planning permission that now exists reflects the comprehensive input of all of these groups. The proposal is fully funded, both in terms of capital provision and in terms of the operation of the commemorative element of the scheme in perpetuity, and the precise detail of its implementation is clearly defined with built-in contingency provisions. Only ministerial approval of the section 14 application is required to move forward towards the delivery of the commemorative element of the Dublin central scheme by September 2015.

The Chairman of the Oireachtas committee requested at the conclusion of our meeting that we obtain reinforced assurances from NAMA and Chartered Land Limited that the commemorative element of the Dublin central scheme could be successfully decoupled, if necessary, from the commercial element of the scheme and that, even in the event that the main scheme was held back by prevailing economic circumstances, both the capital and the operational overhead cost of the commemorative part of the scheme would be available. We gave our assurance to the officers that we would attend to this aspect and report back. We have since done so and reported back in positive terms.

To summarise, the proposal to completely restore the buildings at Nos. 14-17 Moore Street and designate them as a commemorative centre for the 1916 Rising, which was made by the owner of the site, Chartered Land Limited, and which was accepted with modifications by the planning authority and, on appeal, by An Bord Pleanála, was deemed satisfactory by the majority of the Save No. 16 Moore Street Committee in terms of achieving the committee's founding aims and objectives. In arriving at this decision the committee took cognisance of the likely effect of the proposed surrounding development on the national monument, the financing provisions which were then in place and the approaching deadline for completion of the works by 2016. The committee is of the view that the proposal is well worked out and achievable within the limited financial context and timeframe.

The relationship between the national monument buildings and the proposed adjacent commercial development has been carefully considered by the architects with open space being created to the rear of Nos. 14 and 17, which will feature some outdoor commemorative material. The proposal provides for the historic buildings themselves to be restored and renovated according to the best conservation practice and thereafter used in perpetuity as a commemorative place to the memory of the events which unfolded in and around Moore Street during the course of the latter days of 1916.

The committee will continue to carefully monitor the works to make sure they are carried out in accordance with the proposal, through its architect member, The O’Rahilly’s grandson, Mark Price, who has liaised closely with Shaffrey conservation architects and will continue to do so until completion of the project to reinstate No. 16 Moore Street and its three contextual buildings, Nos. 14, 15 and 17, to the 1916 specification and pristine condition.