Ba mhaith liom bliain úr faoi mhaise a ghabháil leatsa, a Cheann Comhairle, agus leis an Taoiseach freisin. Deputy Brian Stanley and I are moving a Bill for a single management agency for the River Shannon later this afternoon. I invite the Fianna Fáil leader and Government Deputies to support it.

For now, I am very sad to be raising again the issue of Moore Street in the first Dáil sitting of 2016. In the very first week of the centenary year of the Easter Rising, relatives of those who took part in the Rising and other activists were forced to prevent irreparable damage to the historic terrace at the national monument on Moore Street by occupying buildings there. It is damning after the long battle to save Moore Street that the relatives have had to take legal proceedings against the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in order for work to be halted at the last battlefield site of the most significant event in this nation's modern history, when a handful of republican volunteers went out against the biggest empire in human history.

The Taoiseach has acknowledged that Moore Street is one of the most important historical and cultural locations on the island. The National Museum has described it as the most important site in modern Irish history. When the Taoiseach was in opposition and took a tour of it, he referred to it as the "lanes of history". Now, the national monument - the entire battlefield site - is in State ownership, but the Minister persists in carrying out a plan that was devised by discredited developers Chartered Land in conjunction with the retail developer Hammerson. Developers should not set the agenda. The Government must ensure that the historic quarter at Moore Street is redeveloped in the respectful, dignified and appropriate manner that befits its status. Will the Taoiseach give a commitment to ensure that all necessary steps are taken to develop the entire battlefield site at the historic quarter? If he considered it for a second, he would accept that such an initiative would be a major economic boost for Dublin, in particular for the north inner city's community. It would be a tourist mecca, educational hub and fitting memorial to the men and women of 1916.

I thank Deputy Adams, agus guím ádh de shaghas éigin leis i mbliana freisin.

Go raibh maith agat.

I went down there a few times to look at this. Obviously, the location where those who were involved in the GPO issued the final call for surrender is an historical monument. Now, this has dragged on since 1922. It has dragged on all those years. This Government decided to purchase the three dwellings - the three houses - that are now the national monument owned by the State. What the Deputy seems to want is for the State to acquire everything from the corner of the GPO up as far as the Rotunda, which is where the final surrender took place on the footpath opposite.

This is a matter for Dublin City Council. It has been bandied about for years in terms of who should do what, what developer owned it, what planning permission was approved, refused and objected to and all the rest of it. The Government looked at this and said that we were approaching 2016, the centenary of a seminal moment in Irish history. We are one of the first small countries of the 20th century to achieve independence. The Government considered that the State should purchase the houses involved, and did so. The State wants to put together a very sensitive commemorative feature in those houses that would be the centrepiece of the historical monument.

I understand from the Minister that the house was occupied just the other night and that quite a collection of bedding, sleeping bags, beds and so on donated by a charity were collected there after the people left. I am not sure what the relevance of that was or what point wanted to be made here.

Then why is the Taoiseach making it?

The State does not own the properties right up along Moore Street where the O'Rahilly was shot up as far as the Rotunda. The State now owns the national monument and has responsibility for it. The State wants to do a very sensitive, authentic revising of the quality of the buildings that were there. As Deputy Adams will be aware from recent press comments and from confirmation in those press comments, the buildings on either side were either in ruins or were not authentic in previous years. For the State and the Office of Public Works to do a very sensitive job here is, in my view, an important consideration as part of the overall contributions to the centenary commemorations of 1916.

It is a matter for the elected representatives of the city council to deal with the plan-----

It is-----

They-----

Yes, it is: to deal with the plan that they have presented to them and the planning applications that go in for that, whether those take into account the existing laneways and existing streets or not. That is not a function of the Government. The Government purchased, with public money, the buildings involved. The Government wants, with public money, to do a really important, sensitive restoration of these buildings. Occupying them does not help that. I know that people have divided loyalties in the community down there about what should be done, but the State wants to fulfil its remit and its responsibility in a proper and fitting fashion.

The Taoiseach is right that this has gone on for too long, but he is wrong about everything else. He stated that it appeared that we wanted the area from the GPO, but we want an historic 1916 quarter, cearnóg stairiúil nó cearnóg na saoirse. The Taoiseach knows his history and has walked these laneways. The garrison came out of the GPO. Among its number was Michael Collins. He took over one house. Three hundred men and 30 women occupied the entire terrace. Elizabeth Farrell went up Moore Street and parlayed with the British on Parnell Street. The O'Rahilly was killed in one of the laneways. When the Volunteers surrendered, they were taken to the garden outside the Rotunda. Tom Clarke's shop was on the opposite side of O'Connell Street as Parnell Street. We want to see all of that developed. The local community is not divided in this regard.

The Government is the custodian of national monuments. It clearly has the power and authority to do this. What is lacking is the political will. Yes, successive Governments have failed, but I could not imagine any other state in the world in which this could happen. Whatever one thinks about the political complexion or leaderships of other states, this would not happen there. These are the Taoiseach's last few weeks as outgoing Taoiseach. I appeal to him to use his authority and intervene.

If I may remind the Taoiseach, we have yet to achieve our independence.

Hear, hear.

Our nation is still divided. Partition is still a fact. We now have a peaceful and democratic way to work that out and we all should be doing that. However, this issue should be above party politics. This entire Oireachtas should be united in ensuring that an appropriate 1916 quarter is developed. We do not want a commemorative shopping mall. That is the last thing that we want.

I think that the Deputy's party, with respect, does not want to associate itself with the national commemorative ceremonies that are going on.

That is not true.

We have been at them.

The party seems to want to have its own issues, and that is its own business.

We have been at them all. Did the Taoiseach not see us?

We would not see Deputy Adams at them.

I would say this to Deputy Adams: the State, with public money, has invested in the provision of military archives, has invested in the transformation of the mezzanine in the General Post Office, has invested in the courthouse in Kilmainham, has invested in Richmond Barracks and in the tenement buildings-----

Kilmainham was saved because the State was forced to save it.

-----and also purchased this national monument. I do not think the-----

The Taoiseach could put a shopping mall there as well.

Deputy, please.

-----authority in Washington bought the entire terrace where President Lincoln was assassinated, but the State has purchased these buildings here and wants to restore them as a national monument, which they now are, in State ownership in a sensitive, authentic restoration. People occupying it are not helping that case and may well be a danger to themselves, given the fragility of some of the buildings there. I have said to Deputy Adams before that the reason that people had to burrow through the gables of the houses to get to 15, 16 and 17 was the machine gun on the top of the Rotunda. They could not use Moore Street. The O'Rahilly was shot and his memory is enshrined on the wall there, as the Deputy is well aware.

It will be a car park.

The issue is whether Deputy Adams agrees that it is the right and proper thing for the State, the national Government of Ireland, to have purchased these dwellings-----

The State Government, not the national government of Ireland. Catch yourself on.

Cop on.

Deputy Adams is-----

-----and to have transformed them into an authentic restoration of the place as far as which-----

The Deputies should read the Proclamation.

-----the leaders of the 1916 Rising in the GPO tunnelled and burrowed before Elizabeth Farrell went to deliver the surrender on the footpath opposite the Rotunda. I think it is. It is part of the commemorative centenary celebrations-----

A commemorative shopping mall.

That is a great soundbite.

-----which are sensitive, inclusive and open to everybody. Deputy Adams does not seem to want that. He may have purposes of his own.

We do not want a commemorative shopping mall. Fine Gael does, and-----

The State does not own the other properties-----

-----Labour does, I presume.

-----and the State does not have the authority to say, "These are the buildings and the kinds of developments that we want here".

The Taoiseach can do it in Mayo.

It is a matter for representatives, including Sinn Féin's own, to participate in that discussion so that this kind of development can take place in the locality of the State monument here at 15, 16 and 17.

A shopping mall.