Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Significant historical moments have been mentioned in the House this morning and culture has been referred to also. Yeats has been quoted liberally and next year we will celebrate his 150th birthday. Senator Susan O'Keeffe and I are heavily involved in the preparations for this event and last night we won a significant victory in this House on this matter. In 2009 the ancestral home of Yeats, Thoor Ballylee in south Galway, was severely flooded. Though it is under the remit of Fáilte Ireland, the house has since remained closed. It would be a shame, locally, nationally and internationally, if the house was not opened for his 150th birthday.

Senator Susan O'Keeffe attended a meeting of the Yeats Thoor Ballylee society chaired by me ten days ago in Galway. Last night I engaged in an Adjournment debate with the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Michael Ring, and he has granted us a licence to take over Thoor Ballylee for one year with the right to engage in fundraising.

Fáilte Ireland cannot afford to open and run the house and neither can Galway County Council but we are confident, based on the number of approaches we have received nationally, from the UK and from the US, that we will raise enough money to reopen the house and run it into the future. We may require up to €1 million. We will then hand it back to the relevant State agency to run it in conjunction with the local community group.

This is a historic moment for Seanad Éireann as Yeats served in this House from 1922 to 1928. This is a good news story and I thank the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Michael Ring, for his vision on this issue. I thank Fáilte Ireland for working with us. I hope all Senators will join us for the reopening of Thoor Ballylee next year, in time for the 150th birthday of Yeats. I know Senator Susan O'Keeffe will be there. I have debated many Adjournment matters without a positive outcome so this is worth noting.

Like many others, I ask that the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphreys, come before this House to discuss this significant year, which holds the 150th birthday of Yeats. We should brief her on what we are doing and hear the Government's plans.