Mr. Dominic Dunne:

I have worked as a volunteer for the past 20 years on raising awareness of the need to protect our natural, living, built, buried and cultural environment - everything that identifies us as human beings, as Irish people and as individuals. I believe it was a Professor Kealy who went a long way towards explaining that there is a psychological element to our natural, living, built, buried and cultural environment which is necessary for a social democratic country to understand. For example, to deal with built heritage, when one walks down a street the architecture in that street and the manner in which it is presented to the public who utilise that street has a psychological impact on the people. If the place is monolithic in its presentation, psychologically the people will feel oppressed and therefore when planning departments plan streets and so on they should be cognisant of those issues; it should be an educational requirement for those sitting in such seats of responsibility.

Regarding No. 16 Moore Street and its environs, I am here as an environmental activist and a member of the Save No. 16 Moore Street. In early 2003 I was asked by some people to have a look at Moore Street and specifically No. 16 Moore Street. I was informed that about two years prior to that time a Save No. 16 Moore Street group had come into being which had lobbied Dublin City Council long and hard and eventually achieved its objective, through a unanimous vote in the chambers, to have No. 16 Moore Street put on the list of protected structures. However, as is the case with ordinary people who have such interests but who are not activists they do not understand that when they achieve their aims through consensus, as voiced by someone earlier, they must ensure that what was achieved is brought to reality. That is what happened. They went home and two years later the site still has not been put on the list of protected structures, even though we had a unanimous vote on the issue in the city council chambers.

I was asked if I could put my energies into it and in doing so I called a meeting of interested individuals in Tailors' Hall off High Street, Dublin. At that meeting it was decided by everybody present that a committee should be formed to ensure No. 16 Moore Street is listed as a protected structure. I had not intended going any further on that action that day as I had other interests in mind but I asked the people present if there were interested parties who would chair the committee. There was a request from the floor that I take the chair but I said I was too busy. That request was made three times and eventually I succumbed and carried it forward from that point. I chaired a loosely run committee with little or no regulations; it was just free speech at the table to determine where we could go from that point. Many members joined and left the committee for different reasons but about 18 months later, through strong lobbying of Dublin City Council, we again achieved a unanimous vote in chambers to have the building put on the list of protected structures. We continued with the challenge and turned our face to central Government to seek national monument protection because listed protection does not afford great protection. We got national monument protection.

My argument at the committee was that we should argue to keep the houses on both sides of No. 16 Moore Street to keep some context to the single building. The single building would be lost in the development but at least Nos. 15 and 17 would give it some context and we would have some room for a commemorative centre as opposed to a small museum. I was first lambasted for that idea but we ran with it. We mentioned it a few times but we continued to argue only for No. 16. We succeeded in getting four houses put on the list of protected structures, the footfall of six houses designated as a national monument, four on Moore Street and two on back lanes.