asked the Minister for Finance if he will state who first informed the governors of the Rotunda Hospital that the Government had decided not to proceed with the making of the Garden of Remembrance which had been intended as a memorial to the members of the I.R.A. who had died defending the Republic, the date on which this information was given to them and whether it was given orally or in writing.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garden of Remembrance.
I am not aware that any such information was conveyed to the governors of the Rotunda Hospital. It would, in any case, have been incorrect, as there has been no decision not to proceed with the Garden of Remembrance.
How did the governors become aware that this site was available to them for the erection of buildings?
asked the Minister for Finance if he will state the circumstances in which the governors of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, became aware of the fact that the site of the proposed Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square was available for their use as a building site.
I thought I had, in answer to previous questions, made it perfectly clear that the arrangement whereby the site of the proposed Garden of Remembrance was made available for use as an infant welfare unit is a purely temporary one. The governors of the hospital are, and have always been, aware of this fact, and their original representations, which were made to the Minister for Health, for the temporary use of the site recognised in specific terms that the Garden of Remembrance project would proceed in due course.
Is it a fact that the governors of the Rotunda Hospital are now in possession of the site; and, if so, how did they become aware that the Government was prepared to enter into an agreement with them for the use of the site? Can the Parliamentary Secretary answer that?
Can the Parliamentary Secretary indicate to the House that the temporary period to which he refers will not be of such long duration as that from 1935 to 1948?
How long will it be?
There appear to be many questions put down in the House in connection with this site for a Garden of Remembrance and I am very much surprised that they come specially from Deputy MacEntee because of what happened when his Government was in power. A minute is recorded in a file in my possession setting out, on representation from the then Minister for Finance, that this matter be postponed for a term of five years owing to financial stringency.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that it took four years to get this site out of the governors of the hospital and it took less than three months for them to get it back?
Four years, plus the five for which your Government postponed it.
Mr. Byrne
As an ex-member of the Rotunda Hospital Management Committee, may I state that we were always willing to give the site?
The Deputy is quite disorderly. This is Question Time and not a time to impart information.