Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Murphy for that. I also thank the Minister of State for attending this morning. This matter speaks to a very important development in my constituency of Dublin Central, in the heart of our capital city and the birthplace of our Republic. Moore Street is one of the country's oldest trading streets. It is one of the oldest commercial streets where people and families have traded for decades. It is also an historic site, not just from a commercial and trading perspective, but also from a political and social perspective. It lies adjacent to O'Connell Street and the GPO, the birthplace of our Republic and one of the sites of the 1916 Rising, which we recently commemorated. It was from the GPO that the leaders of the 1916 Rising evacuated Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street. The buildings have been protected and were designated a national monument back in 2007.

As a city councillor, I worked for many years with the street traders, relatives of the 1916 Rising participants, property owners, the local authority, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and other stakeholders to try to realise, on that site, a 1916 commemorative museum. We have had many false dawns and this is the fourth time in this term that I have raised this issue in the Seanad. I raise it again today because there is deep disappointment and frustration with the lack of progress. Some time last year, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage assured this House that a design team had been appointed and that works would commence "within weeks". I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, is standing in for the Minister but we are now not weeks on but months on. In fact, we are into a whole new year. It is devastating to see the neglect of Moore Street and the national monument thereon but what is more frustrating and disappointing is the lack of energy or ambition to actually realise the potential to bring the street back to life again, to reanimate it as a trading street and also to bring to life the historic events of that street. Those historic events led to the birth of our Republic. There is such enormous potential for a 1916 commemorative museum on the national monument site at Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street. It would link directly to the GPO museum. There is a direct historic path - the evacuation route - from the GPO, through Henry Place, down Moore Lane and into Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street.It is my hope that the Minister of State will advise the House on a commencement date for works to deliver a 1916 commemorative museum on Moore Street.