I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £9,731 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1956, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Institutions of Science and Art, for certain Miscellaneous Educational and Cultural Services, the Centenary Commemorations of Thomas Davis and the Young Ireland Movement, and Sundry Grants-in-Aid.
The main item in this Supplementry Estimate is the provision of £9,500 under sub-head A (5)—Purchase of Specimens—for the purchase of a collection of Irish silver. This collection consists of 25 items representing first-rate specimens of Irish craftmanship. All are superb examples of the work of Irish silversmiths during the 17th and 18th centuries and it would be an irreparable loss if they were allowed to leave the country. It was in fact to obviate their being sold abroad that steps were taken to acquire them for the museum. Their purchase will go far towards making the museum collection of Irish silver, what it ought to be, the best in the world, containing as it will, as a result of this purchase, many unique items intimately related to the social and economic life of the country in the periods to which they belong. In the purchase of these specimens, I had the advice of a number of experts and am satisfied that the price paid is reasonable and is in fact lower than that which the vendor would have received if he had not been well disposed towards the museum and if he had elected to sell them in the open market abroad.
A sum of £231 is required under sub-head B (1)—Publications in Irish—to regularise certain payments towards the publication of books in Irish which were incorrectly charged against the Vote in the financial year 1952-53. Issues totalling £2,440 were made during the financial year 1952-53 to the board for disbursement and were charged in full against the Vote for that year although they included payments amounting to £231 not actually made by the board until the following financial year.