Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The building is owned by the Courts Service. It was signed into ownership by the State in 2004, almost 180 years after it was built. The point I am making is, there is a trajectory of funding that has to be done but there is an immediacy about what we are trying to do in order to preserve what we have. There is a bigger plan but what is in danger of being lost before our eyes is the graffiti and the drawings that are there since the War of Independence and the Civil War. We got commentary on RTÉ about the shame it would be to lose that. It would be a shame. I have to put my hand on my heart and say, I saw it a number of years ago and I see it now. It pains me to see that it is actually decaying before our eyes. As I understand it the only other graffiti that survived from the War of Independence and the Civil War is in Kilmainham Gaol and in the Women’s Jail in Cork. It might be a bit ad lib for me to say that if it was in Dublin it would be preserved but here we have it, in the heart of Duhallow in Kanturk, of fantastic historical significance for future generations and it needs to be preserved. The bigger job of turning the courthouse into a museum or an economics or historical centre is for later. The immediacy is to preserve what we have. I ask the Minister of State to take it back, in the context of this Bill. I have studied the Bill and looked at it going through. The Bill will compel people to ensure that historical artefacts are kept. However, we have this in State ownership and it is dying before our eyes.

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