Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

In respect of the Deputy's first question, perhaps she will inform me later if there are specific issues, documents, artefacts or whatever in which she and her party are interested and which are not in the public domain or which are not intended to be in the public domain. I would be pleased to follow that through.

For the information of the House, I have received correspondence from people whose parents or grandparents were involved during that period and who have made reference to documents, files or papers about which they have queried whether they are in the military archives. For the information of the Deputy, some 300,000 documents are in files in the military service pensions archive which relate to the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War to 1 October 1924. This is what comprises the collection.

The purpose of the military service pensions archive project is to make all of these available to the public well in advance of the centenary of the 1916 Rising in 2016. To back up this, a team of four archivists has been put in place in Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines. The work of processing the collection is under way under the direction of a steering committee, which comprises representatives of the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Defence, the Defence Forces and the National Archives. We can report progress on how the archival analysis is progressing in order that it will be available. We plan to have those 300,000 files available to the public long before 2016.

I have visited No. 16 Moore Street and understand there is a planning process under way which I do not want to prejudice in any way. In 2007 the then Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dick Roche, placed a preservation order on the building under the National Monuments Act 1930, as amended, on the basis that the building's preservation is a matter of national importance by reason of the historical interest attached to it. Ministerial consent under section 14 of the 1930 Act will be required for all works affecting the area covered by the preservation order. I understand the planning approval that was granted by An Bord Pleanála for the redevelopment of the Carlton cinema site in central Dublin includes a provision relating to the conservation of the national monument at Moore Street.

I recognise the importance of this issue and took the trouble to visit the site long before the election was held. In my view, as a citizen and public representative, there is an opportunity here for a very worthwhile project. However, the current site is not very amendable to encouraging people to visit it. The exit from the side of the GPO into the laneways - the laneways of history, as I call them - to the site of the battery on top of the Rotunda, to the location of the eventual surrender, including the location of the death of The O'Rahilly, together with No. 16 Moore Street, should be considered an essential part of our history. While not wishing in any way to prejudice the planning application that is under way, it is an area in which I have an interest.

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