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

It is good to have an opportunity to engage with the Heritage Council again. I have done so as part of the Moore Street advisory committee but also when I was Chairman for a brief time in the previous Dáil of the then Joint Committee on Arts, Culture and Heritage. Culture gets shifted around a little bit. We had a very good engagement with the Heritage Council and at the time, I asked about the role of the council in local museums and about online collections. At that stage, we did not predict the pandemic and could not have known how vital online collections and online engagement with the public would become. While there were plans forthcoming, funding was not yet in place because the council was depending on the Government in that regard. What is the position with regard to those plans?

Is there a larger demand from local museums or heritage centres to profile the material they hold or their areas online? Is there greater collaboration between the Heritage Council and the local museum?

On Fáilte Ireland, we have all had the staycations. Hopefully, many of us have benefited from some of the offerings that heritage councils and local authorities have put forward in recent years. I have been an advocate for years and I have enjoyed my travels and wanders around Ireland. However, much more can be done. What does the Heritage Council see as the additional steps that can be taken? The big elephant in the room is always funding. What are the immediate practicalities?

The other questions I had were about Moore Street. With each given day, there seem to be new finds and new bits and pieces that we were not aware of, although we had some type of knowledge in advance, for planning applications. There is a live planning application for Moore Street and I have made own views on that clear. The context of buildings should be taken into account. Moore Street is a battlefield site. We could end up like the Alamo, where the building is secured, but if we build high rises all around it, we lose the context of that historical building. We have seen that with some of the other proposals around the city. Merchant's Arch is one example. If we build a high-rise hotel on top of Merchant's Arch, we then lose the context of the building. There are other buildings that have been destroyed. There seems to be a phase whereby we are destroying the buildings that are part of our living heritage. When I was growing up, I remember going on the Wood Quay marches. I remember Archer’s Garage being knocked down. It was thankfully rebuilt, although the damage was done. Another example is Frescati House. When I was very young I was involved in trying to secure it for the future. We now have O'Rahilly house, which is to be destroyed. We will see what comes of that court case.

My other question is on local heritage officers. I remember at the time there was much discussion trying to ensure that every local authority had the local heritage officer. Is that working? Is it not working? Who is funding it? Should the council, rather than the Heritage Council, co-ordinate them rather than having to fund them? That is enough for now.