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

I will try to be brief but I cannot always guarantee that. This question is in some ways in respect of funding because recently the restoration of the Magazine Fort, for instance, was announced and it is welcome. I have written a small piece for History Ireland welcoming this development. It is often when projects such as this are announced that a budget is set aside. Sometimes, however, we forget that the budget is not enough and that additional resources may be needed. For instance, the OPW then has to divert personnel and everything else to a big project such as this, where the budget may not be the exact amount that is required and may be a great deal more, as we know. I just had an extension put on the mother-in-law’s house and it cost me a third extra and that was just last year, and I am still paying for it.

In such instances such as large projects, and I believe Ms Teehan mentioned the making of places with these projects, because it is not just the restoration and the looking after it but it is also the setting out of it so that the public can enjoy it. That is part of what the role is. It is a big undertaking and most of these sites in the past were not self-sufficient, did not pay for the work that was put into them or, necessarily, their upkeep. How do we ensure in legislation that we give that protection? Can we do so or is it a case of the annual Estimates process, as Ms Collier has just referred to?

Finally a question arose in which the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, was very helpful and it is not even in my constituency but it is on the edge of it, namely, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Covid-19 hit and all of a sudden nobody was visiting the cathedral and it was very substantially down in its funding. It was also in the middle of a restoration project on its roof which is costing some €9 million. The cathedral could not apply for the normal grants because it is a functioning church or ecclesiastical site, even though we would all regard it as a national monument.

People would have a view on this. Many of our cathedrals are like this. The church on Meath Street was damaged, as well as a church in Kilkenny. We all regard them as national treasures although they may not all necessarily be national monuments. There may be a blockage in their ability to apply for grants to restore them in the event of damage or, as in the case of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where this was an outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic. Thankfully, the Minister of State stood in and the congregation and others were then in a position to finish their project. This is one of the things we should consider as there should not be a blockage for them in seeking restoration grants due to the fact that they are still in use today. Their functionality should not have to be in the past tense.