Speaking after participating in a meeting between Dublin City Council's Moore Street Advisory Committee (MSAC) and Heritage Minister Jimmy Deenihan, Dublin Sinn Féin City Councillor and MSAC member Mícheál Mac Donncha, said that according to the Minister, a Government decision on the Chartered Land Plan for Moore Street is anticipated within weeks.

Councillor Mac Donncha said: "According to Minister Deenihan he is bringing his decision to the government shortly and he anticipates a decision before the Dáil summer recess which is scheduled for 18 July. The Minister gave no indication of what decision he has made or will make with regard to the Chartered Land plan.

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"For our part we in Sinn Féin have made clear that the Chartered Land Plan is totally unacceptable and would severely encroach on, undermine and overshadow the 1916 National Monument 14-17 Moore St, as well as demolishing most of the surrounding historic Moore Street 1916 Battlefield Site, to be replaced with a giant shopping mall.

"The City Council's Moore Street Advisory Committee put to the minister its recommendations that he withhold his ministerial consent from the Chartered Land Plan unless major changes are made, preserving the Battlefield Site. It was pointed out to the Minister that Chartered Land depends entirely on a State agency, NAMA, for funding. Yet on questioning by me he said that neither he nor his Department has met NAMA on this issue.

"Pressure needs to be maintained to ensure the full preservation of the National Monument and in the context of a 1916 Battlefield Site that preserves Moore Street and the historic lanes and buildings behind it which have been described as 'the lanes of history'."

(CD/JP)