Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a very good suggestion. There needs to be a whole-of-government approach because there will be hundreds of events all over the country between now and 2016. Obviously, there will be a focus on sites such as Kilmainham Gaol because of the significance of the events that occurred there and the considerable number of visitors who will be going there. It is the third most visited tourist site in the city at the moment. The numbers will grow exponentially between now and 2016.

There are many events occurring around the country. I was recently at the Seán Mac Diarmada homestead in Leitrim, an OPW property on which we recently spent €30,000 re-thatching the roof. There are very interesting proposals coming from Galway on the Pearse cottage. The Pearse Museum is another OPW property. Large numbers visit it to see the work of Pádraig Pearse as an educationalist and as someone who was involved in the historic events in question. We need to bring the strands together and I very much accept the Deputy's point in that regard. The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, is co-ordinating the group, which operates rightly and properly on an all-party basis. We need to make sure people know what is happening, because there will be many events.

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