Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very timely that this has been chosen because of what has happened in the past week. When one walked the route taken by the 300 men and women of the Volunteers and the Citizen Army along Moore Street that Thursday in 1916 and when one walks that route today, it is clear that so much happened at different places along the lanes and in the houses. This is a battlefield site of historical significance and it is not just Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street that should be a national monument. What happened on the battlefield site did not just involve the leaders, it also involved men and women from the Volunteers and the Citizen Army, and the ordinary citizens of Dublin. Why is the area, including the laneways, not a designated national monument? Was NAMA ever asked to gift the battlefield site to the Government and to the nation because it is of such huge historical importance? Why, when paying the €4 million, did the Government not consider that this sum should have included the entire battlefield site, because it is recognised as a battlefield site, both by our National Museum and by the British Imperial War Museum?

As it stands, Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street will be preserved and the rest of the street will be a shopping centre, which is totally inappropriate in an area of great historical significance, not to mention that Dublin does not need another shopping centre. There is a need for a different vision of a historic cultural quarter that will link up with the plans for Parnell Square, which will maintain the fabric of how the street looked in 1916 and which will be much better for the street traders.

We know the work began last Monday week when the builder moved in. Who is monitoring and overseeing that work? Who is on-site to ensure those builders know exactly what they are doing? Where is the conservation architect who will oversee that and ensure that no more is lost in the area?

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