Chairman:

The Moore Street campaign looms large in Dublin city. The area offers a phenomenal opportunity to create an internationally recognised and attractive heritage location, battlefield site that would enrich the area, for those who live and do business there. The area is, however, sterilised due to the case in the High Court. It may be sterilised for a few years if the appeal proceeds. That is a great shame. While I understand the Minister's instinct is to defend the rights of the Department and future decisions, there must be some regret that the area is sterile and that those buildings, while they have been stabilised, will be left frozen until some agreement is reached.

I understood that when the ministerial advisory forum was created, which was a great initiative on the Minister's part, there would be an effort to separate the national monuments on Moore Street from the substantive issue of the appeal. In other words, if an agreement was made between the developer and the State on the design, lay out and function of the national monument that could be separated from the legal element of the appeal the Minister is involved in. The advisory forum agreed that there would be such an agreement and that a new planning application for a completely new space would be lodged within six months of the establishment of the committee. The developer has said nothing will happen until the end of the legal process. What can be done in that regard? There are costs in these Estimates for the stabilisation of the national monument and the work of the OPW which is involved there now.

The State's High Court appeal is running into millions of euro in costs. At a previous discussion at the committee, the Minister indicated the moneys would come from those assigned to the 1916 centenary celebrations but the Taoiseach said differently on Leaders’ Questions. Is there any provision in these Estimates for any of the legal costs which will pertain to the High Court appeal?