Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

Ba chóir go mbeadh náire ar an Rialtas seo as an méid atá á dhéanamh aige. The Government's attitude to the GPO is part of a long history of failure in respect of O'Connell Street, its history and heritage. The street where the Irish Republic was declared and where the workers of Dublin fought the Dublin Metropolitan Police, DMP, during the 1913 Lock-out has now been taken over by fast-food chains, litter, dereliction, crime and drug-dealing. Despite the protestations we have heard from Ministers and Government representatives, the truth is that there is a litany of examples of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael destroying, neglecting and ignoring our republican and revolutionary heritage.

The GPO, as the headquarters of the Easter 1916 Rising, should be part of an historic and cultural quarter that would include the entire Moore Street 1916 battlefield, as proposed by Sinn Féin. If anyone wants a reminder that these parties do not value our history, it is the fact that Thomas Clarke's shop at the top of O'Connell Street is now a Londis. Who knows what commercial premises will be in the GPO if the Government gets its way?

For all the Government's practical approaches, I ask the Minister to contemplate the following. On O'Connell Street, Ireland's main street, the site of the GPO where the Irish Republic, still unfulfilled, was declared, there is not one statue to an Irish republican leader, including the 1916 leaders. In any other capital city, the GPO, an historic building so centrally located, would be the site of a state-of-the-art museum charting the struggle for Irish freedom and independence. Instead, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are content to turn it into a glorified shopping centre. For all the Minister's propositions, he may back down now because he will not get away with it. Republicans the length and breadth of Ireland will battle to save-----

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