Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the witnesses for their presentations. The first point I would like to raise is an issue in relation to finance. Is the proposed allocation for local authorities €10,000? If that is so, it is a significant decrease from the allocation in 2016, which I believe was €50,000. One would have thought it would have been the other way around, because 2016 commemorated events that essentially took place in a very small number of locations.

In 2020, however, we are commemorating events that took place in virtually every parish in the country. If we are going to work to a local authority model, it would seem to me that €10,000 is a very small amount to be spread across counties such as Tipperary - where there was a lot of action, Galway or Cork etc. I would be interested in hearing confirmation of what the allocation is. How much did we spend in total in 2016 and how much will we spend in 2020? Mr. Falvey says it was €2 million this year and it was €900,000 last year but the real comparison is with this year of high activity all around the country. It is much more pervasive than the events of 1916 and 2016 is the mirror of that. How does the money compare between 2016 and 2020 in total and how much are we giving to local authorities for 2020 compared with 2016?

Has consideration been given by the Department to putting a special fund aside to refurbish every monument to the period? These monuments are in every part of the country. There are many roadside monuments to engagements that took place during the War of Independence, and it was a war of independence. Has the Department considered providing funding, either through the local authorities or through any other appropriate organisation, for the refurbishment of all these monuments, many of which are suffering from the ravages of time?

I read the report of the expert advisory group on centenary commemorations and my views are known to that committee because I am on the parliamentary advisory committee. To me, democracy was founded in 1919. This is the Thirty-second Dáil and nobody disputes that across all the political divides in this country. The First Dáil was the first and this is the Thirty-second Dáil. I was gratified and taken by the fact the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently published a book outlining the history of foreign affairs in an independent Ireland and it started in 1919 because the events of 1919 and 1921 shaped an awful lot of foreign affairs post the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The setting up of the First Dáil and everything that happened after that was to establish a native Government here. It might not have been recognised by the British but that was their problem. American Independence Day is 4 July to commemorate the day they signed their declaration of independence. I am a little disappointed there are no national commemorations or highlighting of, for example, the fact the justice system and the District Court system in particular were set up during that time. One of the keystones of democracy is there is a Government and there is some way of adjudicating the law. I am also disappointed with the lack of commemoration of the role of foreign affairs. Extraordinarily among independence movements around the world, an independent foreign affairs process was built and put in place. It is well chronicled by the Department. That is worth commemorating because it was totally unusual. Most people thought independence would come in the field as a result of battle but these were huge innovations at that time. I have constantly argued for us to commemorate the death of Terence MacSwiney by hunger strike because it was worldwide news and had huge influence in places such as India and within Europe. I know other people died on hunger strike but that was the one that reached across the nations and had world resonance. Why did the expert advisory group on centenary commemorations not see that? There is no conflict involved in this. No weapons were used except the weapon of self-sacrifice. Why has no big State commemoration been recommended by the expert advisory group on centenary commemorations for this event? It seemed to me to be worthy of a commemoration, particularly seeing as he was the mayor of the city of Cork, the third largest city in the country.