Heritage Projects
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-07
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Patrick O'Donovan (FG), Limerick County

It is expected shortly. As I said in my reply, I will bring the report to the Government and then publish it. I do not disagree with anything the Deputy has said. Restitution cannot be a one-way street. We need to see if there is anything in Irish institutions that is connected to, funded by or associated with colonial plundering. I do not disagree with that term. I believe the Deputy is being very mild-mannered in using it. We cannot ask others to do as we say and not to do as we do. In a similar way, if other countries, particularly European Union and former European Union countries, have plunder from here, restitution needs to be examined. There are post-colonial museums scattered all over Europe like feathers out of a bag and these contain plunder from all over the place, including from Ireland. There is a compulsion on European Union countries that are funding museums they know to contain loot that was taken from people against their will to recover it and return it to those people's countries. That includes Ireland.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-07/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-07