Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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20. To ask the Minister for Defence if he will ensure that the Curragh military history museum takes immediate steps to document and outline the history of the garrison community that existed at the Curragh Camp for almost one hundred years, and is unique here, with particular reference to mapping and gathering oral histories. [5580/14]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The Curragh Military Museum collects, safeguards, holds in trust, researches, develops and interprets collections of objects relating to the Defence Forces Military Heritage and the local Curragh environment for the public benefit. It is dedicated to all Military personnel and civilians who have served in any capacity on the Curragh and it is hoped that visitors to the Museum will gain a better understanding of the cultural and natural heritage of this unique site. The Museum is a non-profit, permanent institution and is open free to the public. Also displayed in the Museum is the local culture of the Curragh and its environs such as folklore, traditions and knowledge with displays dedicated to the Curragh families including the Record of Births in the Curragh Hospital as well as the record of the occupants of Married Quarters from 1923 to 1980.

The priority for 2014 is to progress phase four of the Museum Development Plan, which incorporates the Emergency Years Exhibition and the First World War Experience. The extensive Emergency Years Exhibition will be launched to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the start of the Second World War and it will include audio interviews, currently being conducted, with former members of the Defence Forces who served the State during the Emergency Years. The focal point of the First World Experience will be to replicate, within the museum environs, a section of the First World War training trench system that still remains on the Curragh Plains.

I would like to commend the dedicated volunteers who through the optimal use of limited resources, continually develop the breadth and depth of the history and the heritage inherent to the inextricably linked story, both military and social, of the Curragh Camp and the surrounding Curragh Plains.