James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

We commissioned the 1916 exhibition in the GPO which is now visited by thousands each year. We funded heritage grants across every county and we engaged with young people, artists, veterans and communities in every corner of Ireland. We made sure these commemorations belong not to any one party or ideology but to the Irish people as a whole. That, I believe, is what real respect looks like. It is what honouring the past looks like.

My own great-grandfather fought in 1916. He helped to take Enniscorthy town. He was taken to Frongoch and to London for further questioning and examination. He fought for this country. My family knows the history of our own family and the fight for our freedom. By the way, Enniscorthy lasted until Easter Monday. We celebrate every Easter Monday, in a very honourable and respectful manner, what our forefathers and foremothers fought for.

Let us contrast this with the language of Sinn Féin's motion today, language like "wanton destruction", "negligent" oversight and "alarm at the plans". These are all sloganeering designed for social media bites, not for honouring our history or our heritage. These are not phrases of stewardship but ones of division. No one has a monopoly of the memory of 1916. No one political party owns the Rising, certainly not the Provisional Sinn Féin, a party founded in 1970. No one group can speak as the sole voice for the battlefield sites of Moore Street or the historic heart of the GPO.

This Government's countermotion makes our position clear. We affirm the historic status of the GPO as the site where the Proclamation was read aloud to the entire world. We recognise its enduring role since 1818 as a hub of communication and civic life and we endorse the development of 14-17 Moore Street into a state-of-the-art visitor centre. We commit to keeping the GPO in public hands, operational and active, and we include this work in our NDP and to creating a sustainable city. We do not want it to be preserved in name only, not with shuttered units or derelict facades. We want it to thrive as a cultural quarter and as a place of commerce, life and local pride where the living city meets its revolutionary soul. We do not seek to replace history with retail. We seek to ensure history is honoured in a way that is real, accessible and embedded in our urban future.

Let us live up to the vision of an Ireland rooted in democracy, shaped by dialogue and proud of its past without being trapped by it. Let us remember the words of the Proclamation still echoing through the columns of the GPO, "Cherishing all the children of the nation equally." That includes cherishing their history but it is also about building their future. That is the Government's commitment and that is my commitment.

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