Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to correct the record. I never used the words "heated exchange" because I did not have a heated exchange with anybody. My door has been open and I have met a number of the relatives - I will speak about that later.

I have indicated that a detailed assessment has already been carried out and I am entirely satisfied with the quality and findings of the research done. In January 2012, my Department asked the consent applicant, Chartered Land, which owns the national monument, to commission an assessment of the wider battlefield context of the national monument as part of the Minister's consideration of the consent application. The work included a battlefield assessment, inspections and fabric investigations of an area incorporating the block formed by Moore Street, O'Rahilly Parade, Moore Lane and Henry Place and some of the area south of Henry Place extending back towards Henry Street. The report, research, inspections and investigations reinforce the primary status of Nos. 14 to 17, most notably due to the degree to which the pre-1916 physical fabric survives and continues to convey an authentic and legible historical sense of the place within which the final critical hours of the Rising took place and how these buildings stand in marked contrast to the degree to which historical fabric within the wider urban landscape no longer survives.

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