With the dreaded by-elections out of the way, will the Government now turn its attention to our plans to mark the new millennium? Well, up to a point anyway. Although the debate on the exact date continues, January 1st, 2000 appears to have won out over January 1st, 2001 as the moment of celebration. And the question of what we are going to do about it was raised in the Dail this week by Dublin FG deputy Jim Mitchell.
The Department of the Taoiseach is producing a briefing document which will go as a memorandum to the Government, and before the end of next month it is hoped that both a millennium commission and a ministerial sub-committee will have been established. Terms of reference and the funds available will be decided and a calendar of events will be drawn up.
Projects already decided include the renovation of Dublin's O'Connell Street and the creation of a new Academy of the Performing Arts, possibly at Earlsfort Terrace. There will be special events on the Liffey, at the Point Depot and in the Phoenix Park. A fund will be set up for local authorities to organise their own celebrations. The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, James McDaid, is to announce his plans for a year-long festival tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Jim Mitchell is suggesting a renovation plan for the 100 acres covering Grangegorman and Broadstone in the north of Dublin city, possibly to be used as a campus for a united DIT and industrial park, a third Luas line through the area and, most prestigious of all, a presidential route from the city to the Aras flanked by the elegant buildings of Grangegorman, Broadstone and the King's Inns.
Ideas from other sources include a statue of Christ or St Patrick, an initiative on children's rights and various scholarly and cultural trusts. Some things are certain - we won't be getting a dome, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, confirmed in the Dail on Tuesday, there won't be another Liffey clock and we won't be spending an exorbitant amount of money.