Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have had a very long-standing interest in Moore Street and have had the privilege of being in Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 17 Moore Street. I have also had the opportunity to look very closely at the plans proposed by the various historical experts and public bodies which will undertake the work. While not everybody agrees with this, the proposals rank alongside what I have seen done in similar situations. It is a very high-quality proposal which fits in with maintaining the fabric of a street on which I partly grew up. I know every corner of the street. I shopped on the street with my mother from when I was a very small child. I know all the lanes and I know where everybody came out, where Nurse Elizabeth O'Farrell came and where the O'Rahilly was shot. It is part of all our history. What has been proposed deserves very careful consideration by everybody.

There have been a number of throwaway comments about shops being in the vicinity. The Deputy represents the north inner city now. The essence of the north inner city is that it is a very large retail shopping area. The whole of the wider O'Connell Street area almost as far as the canal is part of the 1916 Rising battlefield. It is similar on the south side. The question must be faced by all big cities that have a vast amount of fascinating history which, as the Deputy rightly said, is a very big draw for citizens of the Irish Republic which was created 100 years ago. We are the proud inheritors of it.

We must face the question of how we have the city function as a city centre. Other countries have done this very well. If the Deputy examines many of the books and photographs of the time, she will see that the proposal is very true to what the street looked like at the time. I have a particular interest in this and have examined them over many years. I hope the people from Éirígí who went into Nos. 14 to 17 recently did not do any damage to what are extraordinarily fragile buildings. I ask the Deputy to use her good offices as a political leader to ensure no further damage is done to the fabric. What is proposed is a modern conservation in which a limited number of people-----

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