PLANS TO record the signatures of all past and present Dáil members on a massive bronze plaque have been abandoned despite spending of more than €50,000 on the project.
The half-ton bronze plaque which was supposed to adorn the Leinster House 2000 annex of the parliament building has been dismantled and will not be replaced, the Dáil has been told.
The bronze “wall” was originally conceived as a Millennium project but was melted down after being removed by the Office of Public Works when errors were found.
In 2003, a number of Fine Gael TDs claimed the reason the plaque was taken down was because Michael Collins featured too prominently on it. However, at the time, a spokesman for then taoiseach Bertie Ahern said it was removed because some of the names featured twice.
While the tablet, which measured more than one metre by two metres, was melted down, it was intended at the time that it would be recast and a new, corrected version installed.
Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Brian Hayes told the Dáil this week that due to difficulties in obtaining the signature of each member of Dáil Éireann since its formation, the project was more suited to digital media and would not be continued in bronze format.
“All of the research undertaken on the signatories was passed to Leinster House research staff who are engaged in a separate project on the history of Leinster House,” he told Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness.
Mr McGuinness said a lot of work had gone into the creation of the plaque and he could not see the reason for its destruction. He likened the situation to the recently revealed decision of the National Library to withdraw a book costing €98,000 shortly after publication because of errors and defects.
“It just doesn’t make sense to go to all that effort and then abandon the project completely,” according to Mr McGuinness. He said he planned to raise the matter at the Public Accounts Committee shortly.
The OPW was unable to shed further light on the fate of the plaque on Friday because of the unavailability of staff in its art management section.