On Saturday, 23 October last, at the Michael Collins Centre on the Timoleague Road, Clonakilty, owned by Tim and Dolores Crowley, all Oireachtas Members from across the political divide met the Michael Collins 100 committee. The purpose of this requested meeting by the national non-political committee was to help with its urgent search for a site for a Michael Collins statue in our capital, Dublin. Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest politicians this country has even known. It is astonishing, in its own right, that no stand-alone statue has ever been erected in his memory in our capital, Dublin, for the public. This committee will commission, fundraise and gift the statue in the memory of Michael Collins with his bike similar to the likeness of a sculpture that was erected in Clonakilty 20 years ago. All it wants is for the State to find a suitable site, measuring 2 m by 1 m, for this fabulous proposed monument. I heard the Taoiseach was in Woodfield yesterday. This proposal must have been raised with him there. Will he help honour the 100th anniversary of the death of General Michael Collins and work with this group and find a suitable site in Dublin for the first statue of its type here?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. We have a very pleasant day yesterday in Woodfield, which is just outside Clonakilty, to receive of invaluable diaries Michael Collins kept for five years right up to the treaty and during the treaty negotiations, which were being presented by the Collins family to the National Archives. I thank the Collins family for presenting such invaluable and primary source material in order that future historians and the general public can access those documents once they are digitised by the National Archives and so forth. In the course of that informal ceremony, the Deputy's colleague, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, raised the very issue the Deputy has raised in the House and was told by the mayor of the council, Gillian Coughlan, that the council was engaging with Dublin City Council with a view to securing a site for such a suitable memorial to Michael Collins. The Minister of State, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan, was there also and he indicated he is examining that and other issues pertaining to that period.