Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Seanad today to respond to my Commencement Matter on the national monument at 14-17 Moore Street. The Minister of State may not be aware of this but I am growing very, very old in this job. I spent all of the previous Oireachtas asking his predecessors for updates on the national monument at 14-17 Moore Street and, before I spent those years in here doing that, I spent many years, or rather decades, pursuing local authorities, governments and the State generally to protect, restore and create at that national monument site a 1916 commemorative museum. The buildings at 14-17 Moore Street are the final meeting places of the leaders of the 1916 Rising. It was in No. 16 Moore Street that the decision was taken to make an unconditional surrender. Pádraig Pearse made that decision with his comrades in the rooms upstairs on Moore Street. The Minister of State has been there and I thank him because very early in his ministry, he took an interest and came down to inspect the buildings there. I want to acknowledge and congratulate those who have worked on those buildings. Conservation and archaeological work is painstaking. To us on the outside, it seems to progress at a glacial pace and we find that frustrating.

I grew up in that part of the city and, for me, Moore Street was always a very vibrant street. In fact, it was probably the most vibrant trading street in the city and so it genuinely breaks my heart to have witnessed the deterioration of commerce on the street over the last 20 years. It has now reached the point where, apart from Paddy Buckley, Stephen Troy and the few women traders who are left, the street has more or less died. Most of the street is actually in private ownership. The State designated 14-17 Moore Street as a national monument back in 2007. In 2015, after all of our campaigning, the State acquired 14-17 Moore Street from the private owners, which was a great step forward. It did so with the very clear intention to turn it into a 1916 commemorative museum. Since that time, Dublin City Council, the OPW, the Department of heritage and many others have been involved in, first of all, stabilising the buildings. They are fragile, 18th century, mid-terrace, three-storey residential units above shops. Various entities have stabilised, protected and conserved the buildings and carried out archaeological work on them. They found more than 4,000 artefacts on the site, according to the Department's website.

I know from being down there in the shells of the buildings, even as they are, that the history that will come to life when we have a 1916 commemorative centre is going to be incredible. It is going to be world class. I absolutely believe that because the concept that is being proposed by the State and the Department is one which is of an incredibly high value. It is one that will absolutely articulate the values of our State and of those who fought for our independence and freedom.I hope the Minister of State can update the Seanad on the progress that has been made to complete phase one, the conservation works and the protections, and most importantly on phase 2. I hope he can stand up and give us an indication of when works will commence and when we are likely to see a commemorative museum open.