Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened to what the Minister of State had to say but I got the strong impression that he was just going through the motions. He was reading a script that was ably prepared for him by the Civil Service.

The first thing we need to get out of the way is how we define the national monument, which is what is at issue here. The approach commended by the Minister of State is a limited view of a number of houses on the terrace and that is it. He seems to be quite happy to preserve this small amount of the terrace and allow it to live in splendid isolation in a sea of what would - going by the previous proposals - be grotesque commercial developments. The Minister of State seems to be missing the entire point.

Do the Minister of State and Deputy Ó Cuív remember when the Taoiseach spoke about the laneways of history? He visited the site and was clearly moved by the history and the residences there. He called them "the laneways of history".

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