Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, for taking this topical issue which relates to a matter in the constituency of Deputy Eoghan Murphy and myself. I should point out that I have already raised this issue with the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, and have raised my concerns about the proposal with the ESB.

Number Twenty Nine, Georgian House Museum, is located at the corner of Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Street. It is currently ranked 14th of over 200 attractions in Dublin on the TripAdvisor website. Current opening hours at the museum are excellent, it operates all year and provides, for a small fee of €6, guided tours to tourists and citizens wishing to learn about Georgian household living in the late 19th century. Visitor numbers at the museum rose by 10% in 2012 because of rather than despite the interactive guided tours. The building was first occupied by Mrs Olivia Beatty, the widow of a prominent Dublin wine merchant. A visit to the house gives young and old alike a chance to experience what life was like for the fortunate who lived in such elegant townhouses and the less fortunate who worked in them.

The ESB has used the building since 1928. The Minister of State will be aware that the controversial demolition in the 1960s of the Georgian street scape on Fitzwilliam Street for the ESB headquarters was a major loss to our built heritage in Dublin. The ESB committed to restoration of Number Twenty Nine in the 1980s as a condition of the development of office blocks facing onto Baggott Street and James's Street East in the 1980s. The exhibition is a partnership between the ESB and the National Museum of Ireland and has played an important role since 1991 in making more accessible the history of late Georgian Dublin. Despite savings of €250,000, the ESB wants to downgrade the museum to seasonal opening hours without guides, which would destroy the unique attraction.

In the year of The Gathering, as we seek to improve our visitor offerings, it would be disastrous to cut opening hours from a six day, Tuesday to Sunday, 49 week interactive guided tour offering to an unguided five day, seven month, April to October, offering. Many believe this will lead to eventual closure of the house. For example, while March, owing to St. Patrick's Day, is one of our busiest times, the museum would under the ESB proposal be closed at that time next year when thousands of tourists would be in town. The tour guides, who would lose their jobs under the current proposals, appreciate that the ESB must make savings and agreed in 2012 to a 5% pay cut. While they have put a cost-saving proposal to the ESB, it has not been taken on board.

It would be embarrassing to lose such a tourism gem over such a small saving. I ask that the Minister liaise across Departments and the ESB to ensure the guided tours and opening hours are not lost. Our climate does not encourage tourists. This museum is an all-weather historical tourist attraction, which has been building in terms of attraction year on year. The cost saving proposal put forward by the tour guides would achieve the savings required. In this year of The Gathering, we must treasure these gems and build on them.

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