The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, yesterday supported demands for the Book of Kells to be returned to its home town in Co Meath.
Mr Bruton, whose Dail constituency includes Kells, said the campaign to have sections of the book handed over by its present custodians in Trinity College Dublin deserved "sympathetic consideration".
Trinity has refused the suggestion, saying national treasures should be on show in the capital.
Mr Bruton said: "Exhibiting part of the book of Kells in Kells itself should not be seen as replacing the Trinity College exhibition but as complementing it."
He also called for the return of other treasures to Kells, including the Crozier of Kells, the Cathach extract - the oldest Irish manuscript of the psalms - and its metal shrine.
