In the Dáil on 8 March 1979 and I understand, subsequently on television Deputy FitzGerald accused me first, of misleading the public and the Seanad in relation to the issue of consent to Dublin Corporation to erect civic offices on the Wood Quay site and, secondly, of withholding from the public and the House knowledge of the issue of the consent dated 29 August 1978. In support of his accusation he quoted a statement issued by me through the Government Information Services on 25 August 1978 and a statement which I made in the Seanad on 7 December 1978 in reply to a motion in relation to Wood Quay.
The relevant part of the statement issued by me on 25 August 1978 was:
The Commissioners have now decided that a further period of not more than six weeks should be granted to the National Museum for the archaeological excavation of the site including excavation of the earthen banks subject to the Corporation joining with them in giving consent to this work. When the excavation is completed unless some new archaeological find of great importance has been made, the Corporation will be granted permission to proceed with the building of the Civic Offices.
The consent was subsequently issued on 29 August 1978 by the commissioners and the corporation under section 14 of the National Monuments Act, 1930, and gave legal effect to the arrangement referred to in my statement. This provided that the consent to the corporation to proceed with the erection of the civic offices would be effective when and only when the condition in relation to the discovery of a new archaeological find of great importance had been satisfied. The decision of the Supreme Court on 7 March 1979 finally decided this issue.
The contents of the consent dated 29 August 1978 were disclosed and discussed at a public meeting of the Dublin City Council held on 4 September 1978. Deputy FitzGerald's statement that the contents of the consent were withheld from the public is therefore false and it is difficult to understand that he was not aware of it when the contents were disclosed in particular to many members of his own party and published the following day in the national newspapers.
With regard to the statement which I made in the Seanad on 7 December 1978 the following are the relevant extracts from it:
Lastly, of the area directly affected by the scheme for the civic offices, the greater portion has already been carefully and scientifically excavated by the staff of the National Museum with due regard for all archaeological factors. As I said in the Dáil last week and again in the course of a radio interview on the following day, I will do my best to ensure that the remainder of the building site is thoroughly and scientifically investigated to the satisfaction of the museum staff who, because of their intimate knowledge of the site, are in my opinion best qualified to advise in this matter. I have invited the National Monuments Advisory Council to meet me on Friday, 8 December so that I can consult with them and seek their further opinions before I make my final recommendation to the Government which I hope to do next week.
It is clear from these extracts that the recommendations which I had proposed to make to the Government related to the question of the archaeological excavation of further portions of the Wood Quay site as the allocation of the necessary resources for this purpose would require the approval of the Government as well of course as requiring the consent of Dublin Corporation.
Accordingly, I did not in any way mislead the Seanad and I would ask Deputy FitzGerald to withdraw his un-warranted accusation against me and I would hope the Press will give the same publicity to such withdrawal as was given to the original accusation.
