Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister of State's reply and the points made by her and the points communicated to me by the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, in her written reply to me. However, I do not accept them and I will go back to the core point I made. It is a matter of how one prioritises this. The date should be fixed in the diary in the same way that 1916 is and in the same way as our other commemoration date for all those who died.

If both the President and Taoiseach know that it will be commemorated year in, year out on a certain date, an effort will be made to ensure it is in their diary. If someone knows that a date is in a diary, they can work towards such things as moving the event around the country and using the four provinces of the island. On almost every level, namely, organisation, planning and delivery, it makes far more sense. The committee has done some excellent work over the years and had an idea of fixing the date. I urge it to revisit this. It is not good enough to say it is a floating date as we would not accept a floating date for our other national days of commemoration. No one would suggest marking Easter 1916 somewhere in September. This is the greatest tragedy to have befallen the people and I do not think it is too difficult for us to put a date in our diary to mark it every year. I ask the Minister to reconsider and I will ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, again in the future.

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