Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister's answer seems to have come from the textbook of the ESB. I have a statement in front of me from the company which says:

Since 1991, there is a changed landscape in terms of historical and heritage offerings, with many museums and heritage alternatives now available. Our commitment to heritage activities is now more closely linked to our corporate responsibilities.

The ESB is spelling it out in that statement that its interests are in corporate responsibilities, not in its commitment to the city. When we talk about successful city living, are we actually talking about luxury, high-end apartments? Are we saying that one can only live successfully in this city if one is extremely well off and that it is shut down to ordinary people?

Had the ESB kept to its commitment, which was made as part of a deal with Dublin Corporation at the time the company was given permission to flatten the street, the fully furnished and fully refurbished Georgian home, as it stood in the late 1700s and early 1800s, would still be available for all of us to enjoy as visitors. If the ESB takes it away, there is not a single other property in which we can enjoy that historical setting. The company referred in one of its statements to the tenement museum on Henrietta Street. I know that museum very well but comparing it with the Georgian House Museum is not comparing like with like. The tenement museum preserves the inequality of that period of our history. The museum in Fitzwilliam Street preserves the high end of that history and it is worthwhile to be able to contrast the two.

The closure of the museum on Fitzwilliam Street is an act of vandalism and an abandonment of the city. Given the privileges the ESB enjoyed to develop the street over the years and the money it has made from selling off chunks of the site, that it would be allowed to walk away from reopening the museum is not acceptable. I call again on the Minister to put pressure on the ESB, a semi-State company, to hold on to the museum and keep it open for the enjoyment and benefit of the people of this country and all who visit it. I ask that it not be allowed to destroy one of the remaining open public spaces that is part of the Georgian architecture of this city.

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