Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs to brief the Deputy and anybody else on that. It might be no harm if we had a debate on the Palestinian situation in due course. It is an issue of considerable importance to Irish people. I was in New York when the Palestinian flag was flown over the United Nations headquarters for the first time. Obviously, most countries recognise a two-state solution to the conflict, which has gone on since 1948 or shortly thereafter. The boundaries have changed and are being changed on a fairly regular basis. I will ask the Minister to brief Deputy Adams.

The Deputy mentioned the Moore Street monument. The judge has given his verdict in this case, and it is a long judgment. The Minister has not decided to appeal the case, but it might be necessary to seek clarification on one element of the judgment not about the right of the State or the Minister of the day to declare an entity a national monument, but about the judge's finding on what the State's rights are in carrying out work on a national monument in terms of restoring it, rectifying it or whatever. As I understand it, it is not a matter of wanting to appeal the case. There is a requirement for clarification in order for the State to do work it might wish to do in respect of any national monument - not just the one on Moore Street - and that is an issue the judge identified in his judgment. That needs to be clarified in the interest of the State's being able to do work, and fund it, on any monument in the time ahead. When I get an absolute decision, I will advise the House.

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