Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Bunaoídh coiste ag an Rialtas roimh an olltoghchán deireanach le ullmhú do chomóradh 1916. Ní raibh cruinniú ar bith ag an coiste sin ó shin.

The Government established a committee to prepare a programme leading up to the centenary of the 1916 Rising prior to the last general election. There was a request for submissions and ideas from all interested opinion. Sinn Féin made a submission but there has been no proposal since 2007 to either reconvene or reconstitute the committee. The Minister for Defence, who has responsibility for this work is beside the Taoiseach this morning. To the best of my knowledge the committee has not been functioning since 2007. Maybe I will be contradicted.

How soon is it intended to resume the work of that committee? When will we see full engagement in preparation for that fast-approaching major event? In the lead-up to 1916 many important events took place here. In the course of attending to the preparations for 2016 this committee could have addressed other important anniversaries along the way. The Houses of the Oireachtas have not addressed the centenary this year of the founding of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, ITGWU. In 1909 Countess Markievicz founded Na Fianna Éireann. These events were very important in their time and the ITGWU continued to have a significant role in every decade since then, through difficult years and better times, up to the present.

I would have expected that this committee would have considered events that led, and were part of the backdrop to, Easter week 1916, in preparing for the centenary. Will the Taoiseach enlighten us about his attitude to those ideas and when he expects the committee will resume its work programme? It is not too late to mark the centenary of the establishment of the ITGWU or Na Fianna Éireann before the conclusion of this year and I commend the idea to the Taoiseach.

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