Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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Question 492: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he will consider the plans known as HQ16, supported by the families of the executed, as a fitting and appropriate memorial to the historic significance of the Rising and his views on the suggestion that many buildings associated with the Rising have been lost. [38753/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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In January 2007, my predecessor as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government placed a Preservation Order on nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street under the National Monuments Acts. The Preservation Order was made on the grounds that the buildings are a monument, the preservation of which is of national importance by reason of its historical importance as the final headquarters of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.

My role as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is to protect the monument, under that Order, from any danger of being destroyed, injured or removed. In that regard any works affecting the monument require my prior consent under the National Monuments Acts.

I am aware that An Bord Pleanála has granted planning permission for development on the site that includes the Moore St monument. This permission does not supersede the Preservation Order already in place and my consent will still be required for any development works that may affect the buildings covered by the Preservation Order. I fully appreciate the historical significance of these buildings as the site of the last military actions of the 1916 Rising leaders and the appropriateness of any proposed works will be carefully examined against that historical background if a development related consent application is submitted.

I have not seen the plans referred to in the question and I have no function in relation to the promotion of specific developments for sites in private ownership.