Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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223. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is aware of protracted waiting times to visit Kilmainham Gaol; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40109/15]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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224. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if there will be extended opening times for Kilmainham Gaol in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40110/15]

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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225. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is aware of any school being informed it is not possible to undetake a Kilmainham tour in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40111/15]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 223 to 225, inclusive, together.

Kilmainham Gaol is a National Monument site in the care of the Office of Public Works and is, with almost 330,000 visitors last year, one of the most popular and heavily-visited tourist sites in Ireland.

The OPW's role at Kilmainham is to maintain and conserve the site as a National Monument. This is a statutory function under the various National Monuments Acts 1930 - 2004. Additionally, the OPW is tasked to present Kilmainham to the public through a dedicated onsite Guide Service, interpreting its 220 year history including its role in some of the key events in the formation of the State.

The Kilmainham site opens to the public on a fulltime basis 362 days per year. It attracts significant numbers of visitors both domestic and foreign, and has a strong profile as a prime site bookending the Dubline, the Failte Ireland-led tourism project aligned to the east/west city axis. This is the principal integrated "avenue" for tourism in Dublin and is the focus for significant Government investment aimed at developing tourism traffic along the Liffey artery towards a number of key iconic visitor sites (Trinity College, Temple Bar, Dublin Castle, Guinness Storehouse, Collins Barracks/National Museum, Royal Hospital/IMMA, etc).

At current levels and with its current model of visitor management, the Gaol building is at capacity and cannot sustain further large scale increases in visitors. All visitors enter through the historic Gaol entrance and, while this offers an authentic experience, it is very constrained and does not lend itself to dealing well with the volumes of people. There can be significant delays at the entrance on busy days and the site experiences congestion particularly during peak summer months. This is leading to a less than satisfactory visitor experience at some times. There are however significant limits to what can be changed in building terms within a National Monument. Usually it is not feasible to adapt the spaces to better accommodate visitors. In the case of Kilmainham it is clearly evident that a modern system of visitor management is needed externally in order to streamline the visitor flow, allow greater numbers to visit the site and offer better standards of comfort and convenience to members of the public.

The Government therefore decided that the former Kilmainham Sessions house, which occupies a site immediately next to the Gaol to the East, presents a unique opportunity to create additional capacity to deal with visitors to the Gaol in a modern purpose-adapted environment and to, as a consequence, allow for better management of more visitors to the site. This project is currently underway and will be opened to the public in March 2016 as one of the Government's key 2016 Commemorations projects.

Together with the new development, a number of additional measures will be introduced by the OPW to better manage visitor flows. Online booking will be introduced which will allow visitors to plan their trip in advance and avoid the uncertainty of queuing at the entrance, as happens currently. The Gaol will also open for extended hours, particularly during the busy summer months, thus creating more capacity for visitors at the site.

I am aware that, due to overcrowding, a number of groups have been disappointed in their efforts to visit the Gaol, including some school groups. The OPW operates a scheme whereby educational visits to its sites are offered free to schools and Kilmainham Gaol is one of the most popular destinations in this category. These groups are, - unlike the general individual visitors, - booked in advance and unfortunately, as a direct consequence of the huge popularity of the site, it can occur that all the available slots on a particular desired day are simply booked out. The OPW regrets such inconvenience. Unfortunately, School Tours seek to book at particular times of the year and, due to the excess demand, a number of applications may not be successful as the site can be full on the day in question.