Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would say that was appropriate. However, for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, the same level of commitment needs to reflected the scale and breadth of events, developments, trends and everything that happens right across the State and, indeed, the country. At this moment in time, the financial commitment that is outlined seems meagre, to be honest. In a general sense, I am somewhat underwhelmed by what I have heard. I will add a qualifier to that. I accept there is a programme to come down the tracks which will provide greater detail. I was personally concerned before the full programme for 2016 events came forth yet the 2016 commemoration was a success, and credit is due to the Department, the local authorities and local communities.

Extraordinary things happened in local communities. In my own area, in Ballyphehane, the streets are named after the signatories and there was a whole year of plays, walks, matches, parades, debates and Tidy Towns events, for example, at Carrigaline.It was extraordinary and the communities really led from the front. There is huge appetite. It is incredible that a cinder block of a book, the Atlas of the Irish Revolution, became such a bestseller and they could not print enough of them. That shows the appetite that exists. I am concerned, although perhaps it is because we do not have the full detail of what is going to happen.

I will ask shortly if the witnesses can give us a timeline for that. This is a time people are anxious to commemorate and to discuss. It was a time of great passions and great developments, including in my own city. This is for the next couple of years but, as Deputy Ó Cuív stated, 2020 is nearly upon us, given we are in December 2019. Tomás Mac Curtain was killed in March 1920, the centenary of which is only three months away. We talk about Terence MacSwiney and it is one of the seminal events but, in Cork, Mac Curtain and MacSwiney are inextricably linked. Their fingerprints are throughout the city and we cannot escape the legacy of Mac Curtain and MacSwiney, which we see in the schools and everywhere else. That is coming right down the tracks and I am anxious about it.

When is the programme coming down the tracks? The burning of Cork was this day 99 years ago. I was at the turning on of the Christmas lights on St. Patrick's Street a few weeks ago where everything as far as the eye could see was burned to the ground by the Black and Tans 99 years ago. Are there plans to commemorate that? These are important events. I am sure that Cork City Council is planning events but I want to know what the Department is going to do. There must be more of a financial commitment because there is no way that local authorities are going to be able to do what they want with the finance that is available. I understand that our guests are not going to be able to answer me immediately, but please take the message back to the Minister that more funding is needed. As a Cork Deputy, I would like more money for the city but money is required across the board.

When will the full programme be published?