Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As chair of the all-party consultation group on commemorations, I have held two meetings of the reconstituted group since last October. The group is one of three convened by the Government to focus on the decade of centenaries initiative and any or all related programming, the other two groups being the senior officials group on commemorations and the expert advisory group on centenary commemorations. The expert advisory group and the all-party group are consultation groups and it remains the exclusive responsibility of the Government to prepare and deliver an appropriate commemorative programme for the remainder of the decade of centenaries.

The development of this programme is currently in train and is based on a four-strand approach comprising a State ceremonial strand, an historical strand; a community strand and a creative imagination strand. Representation on the all-party group includes members of the main parties and groupings in the Oireachtas, as well as the Alliance Party and the SDLP in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Ulster Unionist Party and Democratic Unionist Party were invited to nominate members to the group but have not done so to date.

The group most recently met last Wednesday. The meeting, which I chaired, was well attended with a high degree of engagement by the members and this gave rise to a number of useful contributions that will help to inform our discussions at future meetings of the group and, ultimately, the development of the commemorative programme for the coming years. It is my intention that the all-party group will meet regularly over the remainder of the decade of centenaries initiative out to 2023.

The work of the group is supplementary to other work ongoing in regard to the commemorative programme, including the key role of local authorities in supporting engagement and facilitation in local communities and developing appropriate commemorative initiatives as part of the decade of centenaries. In that context, I recently approved a funding allocation of €10,000 for each local authority under the decade of centenaries programme.

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