Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)

I thank my colleague, Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, not only for bringing this motion to the House, but for the battle he continuously fights to protect our rebel history and respect our patriot dead and their families. Sinn Féin has set out a clear vision in Aengus's Bill to develop the 1916 cultural quarter in line with the Moore Street Preservation Trust. The GPO and the surrounding lanes and houses of Moore Street are hallowed ground for Irish people. The Government's proposal to sell off this incredible piece of history to private proprietors is beyond comprehension to most Irish citizens.

It is on the steps of the GPO that Pádraig Pearse read the words of the Proclamation, and it is from within that building that the revolutionary Government of 1916 led the 1916 Rising, a Proclamation that after more than 100 years is yet to be fully realised. That tells us a lot about the Governments we have had in the interim. Dublin became the city that fought the biggest empire in the world from the epicentre of the GPO. The question people have been asking this evening and in the last week is about why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are hellbent on extinguishing the memory of those who died for Irish independence.

This Government plans to ignore the vote of the Dáil to name the national children's hospital after Dr. Kathleen Lynn. It is outrageous.

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