Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Ní dhéanfaidh mé nós de seo. Bhí mé gafa le agallamh ar na meáin.

I welcome this Bill and we will be supporting it on Second Stage. I was chair of the initial Famine commemoration committee that organised the event in Skibbereen referred to earlier. At that time, we considered the issue of a date but the problem was that there was no one date for the Famine in the year that stuck out. We favoured May, and that was when we held it. We were looking to see what would suit communities because we wanted to move the commemoration around the country. That was one of the factors that made the committee decide not to opt for a fixed date at that time.

However, I agree with the Deputy go bhfuil sé in am, it is time now to fix it in the calendar. This year's commemoration will be the tenth annual commemoration, and May is the month on which people are fixed. The reality at the beginning was that we did not know whether somebody would come out of the woodwork with a date of some traumatic event in the calendar of the Famine that would give us a date of particular relevance but that has not happened. I would be happy to see this become a recognised statutory event and therefore we will be supporting the Bill. I understand there is almost all-party support for it. I hope that the two Bills before the House can be progressed through the committee.

As the Ceann Comhairle knows, I have a strong view that the provision in the Constitution on money messages was to stop us spending vast sums of money not voted by the people. I do not believe it was ever intended that it would be used as a device to stop a measure that would have no effect on the overall Exchequer position in a year and would not be measurable in the greater scheme of things. I hope, therefore, that the money message will be given and that the two Bills, or some form of them, will be brought forward to allow us bring into law an event that is heading for its tenth birthday and which is important and has grown in public recognition. It is also important that the international event would be continued.

Since the Famine hit every community in every county, from the most isolated areas to the cities, the idea of rotating the commemoration between the provinces should be retained. We should ensure that it does not go to the big places. An initiative discussed at the initial Famine commemoration committee was that every parish in Ireland owns the Famine and should be entitled to commemorate the Famine at some stage.

See this speech in context