Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Bhí mé i láthair ag an ócáid ar maidin agus aontaím leis an Teachta Adams go raibh sé thar a bheith oiriúnach. Is maith an rud go mbíonn an cuimhneachán ann mar atá. Tá sé tábhachtach do stair na tíre agus don aos óg go gcuimhneoimís ar a thárla i 1916.

Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street are designated under law as a national monument. Approval for development in the vicinity of any national monument must have the approval of the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. The Minister, Deputy Deenihan, has been quite interested in this matter for some time.

There is potential for a major project here. The Constitution allows for the right to own private property. The developer bought the property in the vicinity of 14 to 17 Moore Street, as he was entitled to do, and Dublin City Council gave approval for a particular form of development. The question now is whether the development is in order and whether such a development could be allowed in the vicinity of the national monument where Clarke, Plunkett, Collins and Connolly, of the provisional government, offered their surrender.

As this small country was one of the first small states of the last century to achieve its independence and as the 1916 Rising, in its own way, took the first fledgling steps towards economic and political independence and sovereignty, there could be a marvellous opportunity for that to be remembered in a fitting fashion. By that, I mean the use of the lanes of history in a way that would allow for a more appropriate structure than currently stands where the Carlton Cinema, which was the subject of the planning application, and other buildings nearby are concerned. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, will be happy to respond to a motion Sinn Féin will bring to the House shortly.

It is a case of judgment in respect of the preservation of the monument, which when I was there recently does not look edifying. It is not the kind of place one would like to bring people from abroad who might be students of history or the progress of small nations towards independence to see where the Provisional Government of that time offered its surrender. There is major potential in this project, up as far as the Rotunda, on which the guns were placed or the street down below where the actual surrender took place or where the O'Rahilly was shot and where he died and the commemoration that is there. We must have a rational discussion about what we want to do with Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street and the buildings in proximity to what is under law a national monument.

See this speech in context