Written answers

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

National Monuments

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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647. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when she plans to re-establish the Moore Street advisory committee; the reason for the delay in doing so; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50405/19]

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my previous response to Parliamentary Questions numbered 658 and 659 of 15 October 2019.

I would like to thank all the members of the Moore Street Advisory Group (MSAG) for their invaluable commitment and contribution over the last two and a half years that has culminated in the production of their Securing History 2report which I have read with great interest.

Some of the key recommendations in the report include:

- that there is an urgency to securing the fabric of the national monument at Nos. 14 to 17 Moore Street and that the MSAG confirms its support for the OPW to carry out this process as soon as possible;

- that the MSAG recognises that the Hammerson plan is a significant and welcome advance on the previous plan for the area with the potential to develop a positive vision for the inter-related elements of the market, the national monument and the Hammerson site and that Hammerson are to be commended for their recognition of the importance of this area in Irish history, particularly in relation to the events of 1916;

- that an expert group should be appointed to lead the urgent regeneration of the Moore Street market; and

- that the MSAG be reconfigured to a smaller more-focussed group in order to move the process forward as soon as possible.

I would like to assure the Deputy that all of the recommendations in the report are being addressed.

For my part, I have written to Dublin City Council to ask it to act on the recommendation for the expert group to lead the regeneration of the street market and I understand that it is now in the process of being set up. I will shortly be appointing a chair to the reconfigured Advisory Group after which I will be asking all of the constituent bodies for their nominations. My Department is also advancing arrangements for the development of the scoping document I have referred to. Finally, officials in the Department are in contact with the Office of Public Works regarding the necessary works to the national monument at Nos. 14 to 17.

I regard the Securing History 2report as a significant milestone in the revitalisation of this crucial part of our capital city. The proposals put forward by Hammerson are sympathetic to and embrace the history and heritage of O’Connell Street and the Moore Street area and can be aligned with the objectives of protecting the national monument at Nos. 14 -17, opening it to the public and resonating the mercantile, social and political heritage of the area as a 1916 commemorative quarter. I understand that a recent statement from the Moore Street Traders Association has expressed its members full backing for the proposals which it sees as providing an important opportunity for their businesses to become viable again.

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