Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is another estimated cost of €700,000. First, we had to go out to tender for the gates. This does not come about by just sending out a tender; there were different people involved in heritage issues from other Departments to look at how we would go about this. The gates are a protected structure and are part of the Phoenix Park. In order to get the gates properly in place for the event and afterwards, and for money to be spent on them, it is not just a case of repainting the gates and putting them back up. I shall outline what goes along with that. In taking the gates down originally, some stonework and pillars had to be removed. They had to be rebuilt and put in place. Steelwork had to be in place. We also had to incur costs on tarmacadam and archaeologists because to put these gates back into place we were interfering with the road works. Included in those costs are the collective costs in putting the gates back where they belong. As members are aware, the park has won awards and gold medals recently and is vital to the people of Ireland. It is hugely important to the people and we had an opportunity, when doing those gates and bringing them back, to put them into use again that will do for centuries to come.