I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £2,000, be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1955, for certain Miscellaneous Expenses, including certain Grants-in-Aid, Compensation and other Payments in connection with Injuries to Property (No. 24 of 1941) and Payments of Compensation for Death or Personal Injuries.
This Supplementary Estimate is needed to enable a Grant-in-Aid of £2,000 to be paid to the Derrynane Trust, Limited, which was incorporated in 1948 for the purpose of acquiring Derrynane Abbey, County Kerry, the home of Daniel O'Connell, and preserving it for the benefit of the nation, along with his furniture, plate, pictures, personal effects, etc.
The buildings and some 16 acres of land on the abbey estate have been handed over by the O'Connell family to the trust, which has undertaken the restoration of the buildings in three stages. The work already done has cost £8,500 of which all but £2,000 has been paid for by the trust out of what it collected. This balance of £2,000 has been met out of a bank overdraft, and it is to repay that that this Vote is now required.
Arrangements were made previously that the Minister for Finance would contribute to the trust for the work necessary for the preservation of the abbey a sum at the rate of £4 for every £ publicly subscribed to the fund in the future subject to a maximum contribution of £5,000. In other words, if the trust were to collect £1,250 more, the State would contribute £5,000. Auditors' certificates have been furnished showing that the works for which this amount is required in accordance with the undertaking previously given, have been completed and if similar work is completed next year, then next year I will have to come to the House and ask the House for a sum of £3,000 in accordance with the terms of the undertaking if it is complied with.