In light of comments made by the Taoiseach in Woodfield last November at the handing over to the State of the diaries of Michael Collins by representatives of the Collins family, what action has been taken with regard to the erection of a permanent memorial to General Collins in Dublin, on which he commented on the day in question? Furthermore, as we mark the 100th anniversary of the Civil War today, does the Taoiseach agree it is beyond time that a national memorial for all those who lost their lives in that conflict, amounting to nearly 2,000 people, should be erected in the capital city? Regarding my first question, what actions have been taken by the Department and, on my second question, what actions does the Taoiseach propose to take?

As the Deputy is aware, the overall commemoration and the decade of centenaries programme have been advised by an expert advisory committee. Dr. Maurice Manning, Dr. Martin Mansergh and other historians have been involved and they have done a very good job overall in advising successive Governments and the Oireachtas on the decade of centenaries programme. They did not recommend memorials and statues, although they said that it was up to local groups and so on and that they could, by all means, receive supports. There has not been a collective or centralised view on how best to go about doing this. I have an open mind on memorials for the Civil War. There has been fantastic work done by the academic community. I recently attended a conference in University College Cork on the Civil War. There was a conference in Trinity College Dublin last year on the treaty. Yesterday, we had a fantastic celebration of the Virtual Record Treasury and the restoration of all the records that were burned in the Four Courts, all of which have now been restored virtually. It is a superb achievement by all concerned-----

We are out of time.

-----which merits mentioning.

It certainly does.