Vol. 398 No. 2
1 Mr. Taylor asked the Taoiseach the amounts received by the National Gallery from the Shaw Bequest for each of the last five years; if he will arrange for the accounts of the receipts and payments by the National Gallery of the Shaw Bequest funds to be placed in the Library of the Houses of the Oireachtas; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Receipts accruing to the National Gallery of Ireland from the Shaw Bequest for the year ended 31 March have amounted to the following sums over the past five years:
|
Year |
IR£ |
|
1985 |
139,628 |
|
1986 |
146,371 |
|
1987 |
176,232 |
|
1988 |
162,284 |
|
1989 |
147,407 |
The accounts of the Shaw fund and all other funding for the National Gallery, both public and private, are audited annually by the Comptroller and Auditor General. I have arranged for these accounts to be placed in the Oireachtas Library.
The Shaw fund arises due to the generosity of George Bernard Shaw, who left one-third of the royalties on his estate for the use of the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery of Ireland. The board can spend the Shaw fund for such purposes as it sees fit. In practice, the fund has been used mainly to acquire some very fine works of art which have greatly enhanced the collections of the National Gallery.
I very much appreciate the fact that the Taoiseach has arranged for the first time to make the amounts from the Shaw Bequest public. The accounts were not made public until now. Since this precedent has now been set, which I appreciate as do others, may I ask the Taoiseach for an assurance that henceforth the accounts will be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General and made available for examination by the Committee of Public Accounts?
Open Government is the order of the day. There is one little caveat——
The Taoiseach is not very accurate about some things.
——and that is, I have no hesitation in giving these amounts because they are not all that significant, but there is a slight worry in National Gallery circles that if the amounts were more considerable, they might serve as a guide to what potential vendors to the National Gallery should be looking for.
——or to the Minister for Finance.
Fortunately we have a very culturally orientated Minister for Finance at present.
What is the likely life of the royalties in view of the fact they are related to royalties on works which were published a considerable time ago and for which the copyright will subsist for a limited period?
I am not sure but I do not think it can last much longer unfortunately.
