Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Defence if, in view of the success of the Easter commemoration, he intends to make this an annual event; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17426/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I take this opportunity to congratulate the Defence Forces on their magnificent display at the Easter parade. There was great public approval and support for the commemorations of the Easter Rising. I have received a lot of positive feedback, written and oral, from members of the public who were delighted to see the modern Defence Forces given an opportunity to parade through our capital city. This widespread public approval was also evident at the other events organized by the National Museum of Ireland, the National Library and at other initiatives by colleges, community groups and within political parties which were not part of the official programme. It was also visible at the annual 1916 Defence Forces commemorative event at Arbour Hill last Wednesday.

On Easter 2007 and future years, no fundamental decision has yet been reached regarding the format of the commemoration. There was a great significance to this year's event being the 90th anniversary and marking the reinstatement of an annual commemoration. From this year on, there will be a significant annual commemoration of the 1916 Rising on Easter Sunday with a military component. However, the exact nature of this event has not yet been formulated. Given that we have some time to plan for Easter 2007 and subsequent years, I would welcome suggestions from all sides of the House on the format that should be taken for these events.

I respectfully propose that such suggestions should be channelled through the various opposition representatives who have been nominated to the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Centenary Celebrations. I intend that the next meeting of this group will be held shortly and that time will be spent at that meeting considering any suggestions on the format of ceremonies for 2007 and subsequent years. I await suggestions with interest. We received some useful suggestions on the recent event through the Opposition parties on the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Centenary Celebrations and those suggestions were largely taken on board.

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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In my question I acknowledged that the commemoration is seen as a success and I acknowledged the positive feedback. Will the Minister assure the House that no hidden political agenda was associated with the commemoration? Does he agree with commentators who believe this was an expensive media and photo opportunity and a successful attempt to reclaim nationalism from Sinn Féin, and was this reflected in Fianna Fáil's subsequent 5% gain in the polls? How much did the taxpayer pay for this? On the post mortem to which the Minister referred, what lessons have been learned from the experience?

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I assure Deputy Gormley and the House that there was no hidden agenda. As Fianna Fáil, not Sinn Féin, is the republican party, we had no need to reclaim nationalism from Sinn Féin and there was no such intention. While many commentators related the commemoration to recent opinion poll gains, I do not take much account of opinion polls. The poll that matters to me is the result on the day.

I do not know the exact cost but it was approximately €325,000. Although I will not say it was cheap, it was quite reasonable at that price. We learned that, as I have always suspected, people love pageantry, the Army is a popular institution and people like to see demonstrated publicly that we have a modern, well equipped and well trained Army. People appreciate the efforts of the Army in peacekeeping around the world and they appreciated that this was put on open display in Dublin. The feedback has been generally positive and I welcome the positive comments by Deputies Gormley and Timmins.