Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The arts officers will play a crucial role in the 2016 commemorations, particularly, as Deputy Mulherin said, to bring it outside Dublin. It is not all about Dublin - it is about the whole country.

The county councils have excellent databases of local historical societies, heritage groups and so on and we will use that medium to connect with all those organisations. Most councils are doing that already because I have attended a large number of events across the country. For example, I was in Ballina for the Cumann na mBan event. I also attended the commemorations in Castlebar where they set up a fabulous website for the decade of commemorations. That is a great medium through which we can link in to people throughout the country, and I intend to use it in terms of the 2016 commemorations.