Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government is again on shaky ground, just as it was at the start of the 1916 rising commemorations. Not only has the Minister of State, Deputy Joe McHugh, not turned up for his first questions, but we have an answer from the senior Minister stating that, at the mid-point of the decade of commemorations, we will have something up and running fairly shortly. Given the fact the all-party consultation group on commemorations was the vehicle that actually put the Government back on the right path before the 1916 Rising commemorations, it is shameful that this consultation group is not up and running at this stage.

It seems there is a dissonance in Fine Gael with regard to the commemorations of the republican revolution. I asked why the commemoration committee on the republican revolution was not up and running. Perhaps the answer is in the question. There is a strong Redmondite wing to Fine Gael which has difficulty with some of the details of that decade of the Irish revolution. John Bruton articulated his views on the 1916 Rising and it seems his view was that the only decent Irish soldier that existed before 1922 was one in a British uniform.

I urge the Minister who is present to make sure he passes on to his colleagues that this issue must be grasped immediately and that the consultation group must be constituted as soon as possible.

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