I wish to make an announcement for the information of the House. I have received a report on the reconstruction work on the Seanad Chamber from the Office of Public Works.
The Office of Public Works report that major structural repairs have now been virtually completed and that internal repairs and restoration work has now been undertaken.
As the Seanad ceiling is of enormous interest to a great number of Senators — indeed to all Senators I would say — I would like to bring the House up to date on these repairs by quoting from the report:
The work on the Senate Chamber ceiling has just commenced. The first step will be to replace all missing sections of ceiling with new sections cast in plaster using moulds taken from the ceiling. The replacement sections will therefore be true replicas of the original.
The work to the ceiling will be undertaken by a group of highly skilled craftsmen who will have to work painstakingly to ensure there is no further avoidable loss of areas of the existing ceiling and also to ensure that the newly cast sections are fitted so that the finished work will be a faithful restoration of the original ceiling.
Plans for the final phase of the project, the refurbishing and the refitting of the Chamber, are currently being prepared by the Office of Public Works for consideration by the Committee on Procedure and Privileges within the next two weeks. The committee then can draw up a timescale with the Office of Public Works for the resumption of sittings in the Chamber as early as possible next year.