Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State accused me of being disingenuous in his contribution. However, his statement is a most disingenuous response to an attempt by a Deputy to put forward something positive. Moreover, as I stated earlier, his former leader, Deputy Quinn, sought to have two additional public holidays. I did not simply come into the Chamber today, a few months before the 2016 celebrations, seeking to have a public holiday, but went to the bother of first raising this proposal with the Ministers in 2012, that is, three and a half years ago. I was mindful that were there to be a public holiday, that there would be a cost associated with it and that it would be necessary to inform the business community and to prepare for it. I was not the one who delayed it. I have been a member of the decade of commemorations committee since 2006 and have raised many issues. I note that eventually, in January of this year, the State started to listen to me and to others who had put forward positive proposals of how the State should commemorate the events of 1916. I did not keep all the ideas to myself or among my party but encouraged everybody to join us. In 2013, I raised this proposal at a meeting of the decade of commemorations committee and had the support of the very same advisers - namely, Martin Mansergh and the group's chair, Maurice Manning - whom the Minister of State had the nerve to quote back at me earlier. They agreed that at the very least there should be one day next year on which there would be a public holiday. Perhaps the Minister of State was not present at that meeting, because it took place in February 2013. I have stayed for the entire time and have raised the issue constantly.

Moreover, there is a demand for it. I do not listen to Joe Duffy's radio programme, but I know the Minister of State does. He should ask Joe. He featured this issue on his programme during the week; it was nothing to do with me, as I had not raised the issue on it before that. Moreover, 70% of those who took part in a 6,000-respondent poll said they would welcome and endorse a new public holiday. However, if the Minister of State is not worried about Joe Duffy, he should ask Deputy Quinn what precisely he meant in 2006 when he stated that as Ireland had fewer public holidays than the European average, it should have another two days. I am proposing the introduction of one such day and the Government can pick whatever one it wishes beyond that.

It is appropriate and would be ideal were the Government to consider the reasoning behind the date chosen, 24 April, because that was the day on which the Republic was declared. The Minister of State again accused me in his statement of trying to take away from Easter weekend by moving the holiday to the end of April, but then later stated that there was no support, when the public was consulted, for moving the focus of commemoration away from Easter. The reason for this is that the State had already declared that its commemorations and major commemorative events would be held on Easter Sunday. Consequently, why would the public try to change it? The Government had already declared it; it was afait accompli. I argued at the aforementioned committee that 24 April should be the date until the Minister of the day, Deputy Deenihan, took the decision that it would not be on that day but on Easter Sunday, which is a religious holiday. I argued that the appropriate day, at the very least for next year, should be 24 April, and the record stands. I am not the one being disingenuous; it is the Minister of State.

As for making it a political football, as Deputy Tóibín noted, Sinn Féin has had continuous commemorations since 1916. However, within my family, I note that my father's job in the National Museum was threatened because the State sought to politicise 1916 during the 1970s and did not want any commemorations. He spoke as a civil servant at an event on the history of 1916 and was threatened that he would be drummed out of his job for so doing. The Minister of the day was Mr. Donegan. That is an example of the State politicising the event, and it was politicised because for nearly 30 years, during which the State did not hold a commemoration for one of the seminal events in 1916. The State commemoration for 1916 was re-established in 2006. The Minister of State should check the record. You might be too young to remember that in the 1970s, the State-----

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