Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 18: To ask the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport the position regarding plans for the relocation of the Abbey Theatre including its possible location. [6185/11]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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In the previous Government's Renewed Programme for Government there was a commitment to a detailed assessment of the GPO complex in the context of locating the Abbey Theatre there in time for the Centenary of the 1916 Rising. This was the only location examined. This is not a commitment of the present Government.

The development of any national infrastructure is not a simple challenge. Involving the GPO and the Abbey in a shared enterprise creates a project of intense complexity. A Feasibility Group of the primary stakeholders was established by my predecessor. Its membership included representatives from the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport, the Office of Public Works, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, An Post and the Abbey Theatre. The group has concluded its assessment of the GPO complex to ascertain if it would be a feasible location for the redeveloped national theatre.

Among the main considerations that were assessed were:

the capacity of the GPO to accommodate the brief agreed for the Abbey Theatre,

the integration of theatre infrastructure into the street and skyscape and the feasibility from a planning perspective of any redevelopment proposal,

the cost of the construction, the nature of the title to the site, and the terms and conditions of leases, indentures, mortgages, liens, etc., thereon; and

the costs of lease terminations and other commercial and corporate issues for An Post.

I am currently studying that report and intend to bring the matter to Cabinet shortly for a final decision in the matter.