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

I have no problem with what the Minister of State said but one of the key lessons we have learned to date in the decade of commemorations is that there needs to be planning. There needs to be a timeframe. Regardless of whether it is planning to commemorate the ending of World War I in 18 months' time or the major event that was the Westminster elections of December 1918, they need to be planned. Even the museum needs to be asked to put on an exhibition in either case. For a museum to put on a proper exhibition, it needs a three-year lead in. That support has not been granted to it. There is a range of issues. If the Government wants to engage local authorities, the Department, the Minister and the committee should be instructing them at this stage. We successfully managed to put together a range of events quite quickly. We could have had a lot more. It was very successful and I believe this success should have continued. I asked the Minister last year and a few times since then when this decade of centenaries committee will be formed because that can be the mechanism to stimulate planning for major events that founded the State and other major international events that happened during that revolutionary period between 1917 and 1921 that related to Ireland.

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