Fianna Fáil has proposed that Dublin's historic Moore Street area, one of the key sites in the 1916 Easter Rising, should be developed in the way that Temple Bar was in the 1990s.
Questioned about the party's plan for the area, Galway TD Éamon Ó Cuív said that Fianna Fáil wanted an urban development company to oversee the creation of a 1916 historical quarter.
“The prototype in terms of the powers in the Temple Bar Bill were correct,” he said.
Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys last week said conservation work on the national monument at 14-17 Moore Street, where Rising rebels surrendered to British forces, would be completed next year.
Mr Ó Cuív said Fianna Fáil welcomed the decision to purchase 14-17 Moore Street but called for “a more holistic approach” to the quarter.
“We should protect the whole Moore Street area from inappropriate development,”he said.
Speaking outside Leinster House on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Ó Cuív said the party’s Private Members’ Bill, the 1916 Quarter Development Bill 2015, was due to be debated in the Dáil on Tuesday and Wednesday evening.
He said it would protect all the major landmarks associated with the Easter Rising in Dublin and would go much further than the current legislation designed to refurbish and restore the Moore Street area.
Mr Ó Cuív said that the area would become a “must visit” location for visitors from all over the world.
He said the Easter Rising was an inspiration to independence movements across the world, including in places as far away as India.
Key locations
Fianna Fáil's plan would encompass not only the GPO and Moore Street, but also other key locations linked to the Rising, such as Boland's Mills, South Dublin Union (St James's Hospital), the old Jacob's Factory and the Royal College of Surgeons.
Mr Ó Cuív said Fianna Fáil would like to see all of the locations where Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army fought during the Rising preserved.
“This Bill provides for the establishment of an urban development company, which would oversee the creation of the 1916 historical quarter to ensure that areas of historical significance are given the prominence they deserve.”
