asked the Minister for Finance if, further to his reply to Question No. 14 of 30th October, 1968, he will state who drew up the list of invitations for the official opening of Newgrange, County Meath; and if this was done by his Department.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Invitations to Newgrange Ceremony.
27.
The list of invitations was drawn up by the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation Ltd.
Does the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that the list was in fact drawn up by Mr. Ó Cearnaigh of the Board of Works and was supplied to the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation two days before the opening with the request that the invitations should be sent out to various people including the Parliamentary Secretary himself, two people from CIE, one from Bord Fáilte, one from UCD and two other officials of the Board of Works? Is it not true that the Board of Works rigged this so that only their own clique would be present at the official opening of the National Monument?
Practically everything Deputy Tully has asserted is not correct. The idea of an official opening at all originated with the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation because they felt that this type of opening was necessary. There was no list supplied by the Office of Public Works to the Regional Organisation at all. What did take place was an informal conversation between a junior officer of the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation and an officer of the National Monuments Branch but it was completely informal. No list was sought by the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation of the Board of Works and none was supplied.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary not aware that the statement he has made here now is entirely untrue and that in fact two officials of the Board of Works—Mr. Ó Cearnaigh and Mr. Ó hEochaidhe—did in fact supply the names to Mr. Long of the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation two days before the opening with the request that these invitations be sent out? Does it not look as though this was a trick in case there was any row and the blame could be passed on to the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation, who were only used as messengers to send out the invitations?
The suggestion that there was any trickery involved is unworthy of the Deputy and I am rather surprised at him.
You need not be one bit surprised.
What is true is that the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation felt that a show was necessary to draw attention to the fact that the tumulus was open to the public again. This was not really the opinion of the Office of Public Works because the Newgrange Tumulus had been in the hands of the Office of Public Works for many years but, acceding to the wishes of the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation, the Board of Works agreed to let them handle the invitations. If Deputy Tully will get a hold of one of these invitations he will see that the wording is something like this: "The Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation request the company of such and such ..." They undertook the issue of the invitations and if it was not satisfactory it is probably true to say that they, and not the Office of Public Works, are responsible. On the last occasion when Deputy Tully raised this question I did accept technical responsibility for it and I did express regret that local public representatives may have felt offended. Since the invitations were issued by the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation I have nothing further to add to that.
May I point out that no later than this morning Mr. Long, the manager of the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation, confirmed the information that the list was supplied by Mr. Ó Cearnaigh of the Board of Works for the purpose of having the invitations sent out and that the Eastern Regional Tourism Organisation only invited the newspaper reporters. I have a list of the people here who were selected.
They are an innocent bunch according to you.
The Board of Works are an innocent bunch if they think they will get away with this rigging. I should like to raise this matter on the Adjournment.