Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We will go with the recommendations if members are happy to do so. We need to get the petitioner before us in the new year.

Petition No. P00043/23 is the "Invincibles Reinterment Campaign" from Mr. Aidan Lambert. The National Graves Association is requesting that the Government oblige the Office of Public Works to carry out the necessary excavation works to recover the remains of Joseph Brady, Daniel Curley, Michael Fagan, Thomas Caffrey and Timothy Kelly in what is commonly known as the Invincibles Yard at Kilmainham Gaol. The bodies of these five members of the Irish National Invincibles lie beneath the paving slabs of the yard where they were executed in 1883 for their part in the Phoenix Park assassinations. The families of the five men are represented by the National Graves Association and the wish of the families is for their relatives to be exhumed from Kilmainham Gaol and reinterred in consecrated ground at Glasnevin Cemetery.

The secretariat wrote to the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and received a response, JCPP-r-1389/2023, dated 7 December 2023. The Department acknowledged that the subject matter is a very sensitive one and on that basis, the full response is produced. We have a response from the Secretary General, Mr. David Moloney. Do members have a view on it?