Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys has said she is "deeply disappointed" at the decision by Dublin City councillors to vote against proposals for a 1916 interpretive centre on Moore Street.
Ms Humphreys said the plans were “highly impressive. It was planned to have a lovely interpretive centre that would reflect well on the entire area.”
Ms Humphreys was responding to Sinn Féin heritage spokeswoman Sandra McLellan, who said the “disgraceful derelict state” of the monument and the failure of the recent land swap proposal was “proof” that the owner, Chartered Land, “views the monument as nothing more than an item of commercial exchange rather than the central element in the area”.
She claimed the “failure of the State to intervene in this matter” was a “clear breach of its responsibility to act in the public interest” and she called on the Minister to act to protect the monument.
Ms Humphreys said: “My job is to protect the national monument and that is where my function lies,” adding that she had to respect the decision of the councillors to vote against an interpretive centre.
“But I am deeply disappointed that the proposal did not proceed” and it was an “awful shame” because the centre would have “respected and reflected what happened in 1916”.
Independent TD Lucinda Creighton asked why the department rejected the Ireland Inspires proposal which revolved around a plan to attract visitors globally to attend the 1916 commemoration and was based on The Gathering mode.
“Next year’s commemorations are going to be about the Irish people and about the country itself,” the Minister added, but Irish embassies would continue engaging with the diaspora.
