Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has responsibility for heritage and we need her to be a leader and to drive forward these plans. It is not just a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government; it is a matter for the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to take a leadership role. My colleagues in the Seanad have brought forward this very positive proposed legislation, which is broad and all-encompassing in terms of the powers it would give to enable the site to be developed in the way it deserves to be developed. One of the difficulties we have now is that Chartered Land's plan, which the Minister supported and which I personally supported, was rejected but the Department had no plan B. We have arrived at this juncture with regard to the birthplace of our republic and the Government had no plan B with regard to what it would do if plan A went wrong, which it did. Now we will find that, in reality, nothing will be ready by Easter 2016 on Moore Street.

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