asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that a Committee called the "Tom Kettle Memorial Committee" approached the Board of Works for permission to erect in Stephen's Green, Dublin, a pedestal and bust of the late Mr. Tom Kettle, with an inscription from one of his poems, and that permission to have the inscription in question inscribed was refused; if the Minister will state the reason for this refusal; if he will publish the correspondence which passed between the Committee and the Board of Works on the matter; and if he will now give permission to the Committee to complete the work on the lines originally intended.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - KETTLE MEMORIAL.
The Commissioners of Public Works in 1923 consented to the erection in St. Stephen's Green of a bust in memory of Mr. Tom Kettle, the Memorial Committee stating at the time that the inscription on the pedestal would be limited to "Tom Kettle" or "T. M. Kettle," with the dates of birth and death. In view of the unsettled conditions then prevailing it was agreed that the erection of the Memorial should be postponed.
In February last the Committee informed the Commissioners that all arrangements for the unveiling ceremony had been made, and mentioned for the first time that it was proposed to inscribe on the pedestal some lines from Tom Kettle's last poem. Consent to the addition of these lines was withheld, as the Commissioners considered that some contention might result—a General Election being imminent—but a promise was given that if the Committee desired to carry out the unveiling ceremony as arranged the additional words could be inscribed on the pedestal later.
No good object would be served by publishing the correspondence between the Committee and the Commissioners, more particularly as many of the matters involved were discussed at interviews.
As intimated by the Parliamentary Secretary in the Dáil on 5th July last, there is no longer any objection to the completion of the Memorial with the inscription on the pedestal of the lines desired by the Committee.