Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is a pity the Minister is not here. In fact, this question and Question No. 70 were originally put to the Taoiseach but for some reason, they were bounced to the Minister. I was asking about which events the Taoiseach attended. Given that most of the events seem to be bye or bye, there has been no decade of centenaries committee meeting since last year despite the fact that this is supposed to be a decade of commemorations covering the whole range of events. The members of the old committee were not informed about or invited to the events mentioned by the Minister of State which relate to World War I and there was no planning for major key events that took place in that period. We are talking about 1917, a year in which there were four by-elections which had a major effect on the future War of Independence. That year also saw a hunger strike and the death and funeral of Thomas Ashe but to my knowledge, there has been no planning for a State event to mark that. Other major events include the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis in 1917 or the IRA convention, which had a major impact on the progress of war thereafter.

If we are to have the same success the nation experienced with regard to events celebrating and commemorating the events of 1916 or even the First World War, the Government must plan for it but there has been no planning involving the centenaries committee in this House since the last meeting in Easter 2016.

See this speech in context