Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The work being undertaken by the State to honour the 1916 leaders was designed to fully conserve Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street and to provide a 1916 commemorative centre on the site. The intended works would have involved major underpinning and stabilisation of the buildings as well as re-roofing and a programme of comprehensive repairs that would have retained all pre-1916 fittings, fixtures and structures. The intention was to have the project completed and the commemorative centre open to the public during the current centenary year. The historical significance of No. 16 as the final headquarters of the 1916 Rising was the determining factor in the decision to place a preservation order on Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 17 under the National Monuments Acts in 2007. Collectively, Nos. 14 to 17 represent the most original, complete and continuous section of substantially intact pre-1916 buildings on Moore Street. This was also a significant factor in the Government’s decision to acquire the buildings in 2015 and to initiate the restoration project in the absence of any other prospect of the increasingly essential and urgent conservation works being carried out.

Following the High Court ruling, progress with the commemoration centre and conservation project in Moore Street has ceased and arrangements are now being made to have limited works, as approved by the court, carried out as soon as possible to preserve and protect the buildings for the time being. The objective of these works will be to safeguard the buildings, in so far as this is possible, until a permanent solution is identified. In that context, I continue to examine the court’s findings in so far as they relate to the Moore Street project itself and to the general operation of the National Monuments Acts. I am also examining, in consultation with other Departments, whether there are broader planning and development implications, especially in terms of potential impacts on infrastructure projects such as housing provision, roads, broadband and other developments.

See this speech in context