Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I think there is unanimity on this issue. We should keep Mr. Darryl O'Callaghan's petition open. I am getting a direction to the effect that we should correspond with Dublin City Council. I suggest we say to it that we do not accept the correspondence it has furnished to the committee. It states in it that the traditional location for the Christmas lights switching-on ceremony was on O'Connell Street. It seems it does not want to inconvenience people by asking the operator of the Luas cross-city line to stop operating it in order to accommodate the ceremony. Moreover, it seems there have been issues in managing the large crowds which have attended the lighting ceremony in recent years. The council has also stated it has created winter lights in Dublin city and brought Christmas lights and building projections to more locations and people than ever before. I think we all accept that the council is trying to do its best. Let us suppose I was a first, second, third or fourth generation Dubliner and going to see the switching on of the lights. It is a real family event, something that is synonymous with Dublin at Christmas time. It is firmly the view of the committee that some mechanism should be found to facilitate the process.