Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

The Minister knows there is incredible tourism potential associated with 1916 and the Tans war. Many people who come to the city, from across the island and particularly from across the world, come for the revolution, the failed revolution. The Rising of 1916 is the reason they come, for example, to Kilmainham Gaol. There is potential to develop other sites across Ireland, for example, an interpretive centre at Pearse's cottage in Rosmuc or at Connolly's home on the Falls Road in west Belfast. There is an undoubted massive tourism and educational potential in the GPO battlefield site and an opportunity to revive Dublin city centre either with this site on its own or combined with a 1916 trail which could include Arbour Hill and Glasnevin cemeteries, Collins Barracks Museum, Kilmainham Gaol, other battlefield sites throughout the city and a dedicated 1916 museum.

This is both an issue of civic responsibility and an issue of national pride. James Connolly Heron has described the Oireachtas as the custodian of the national monument at Moore Street. It is our responsibility to do what we can to protect and preserve the battlefield site at Moore Street.

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