Michael Creed
Question:20 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the number of groups/boards advising him on the future of the National Museum and the Collins Barracks project.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National Museum-Collins Barracks Project.
Michael Creed
Question:178 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the number of groups/boards that are advising his Department on the National Museum and the Collins Barracks project.
Michael Creed
Question:179 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the names of persons appointed by him to the interim board of the National Museum; and the terms of reference for this board.
Tóghfaidh mé Ceisteanna a 20, a 178 agus a 179 le chéile.
Such is the interest generated by the National Museum and the Collins Barracks National Museum project that there are many interested groups and individuals who are very generous with their advice and observations on these matters.
I have recently established an interim board for the National Museum with the specific task of advising me on the future direction of the National Museum, including, as a first priority, the Collins Barracks project.
Separately, an inter-departmental group, comprising officials from my Department, the National Museum, the Departments of Finance, Defence and Tourism and Trade and the Office of Public Works are meeting to determine the best way to progress the project.
Deputies will be aware that in his Budget Statement, the Minister for Finance indicated that £10 million would be allocated from Exchequer sources to facilitate this project. In addition it is expected that further significant moneys can also be made available from Structural Funds. The interim board has two tasks. Its first priority is to provide me with a detailed evaluation of the proposals of the inter-departmental group, together with any recommendation the board may wish to put forward. In addition, I have asked the interim board to provide me with an assessment of the impact of these proposals on the current administrative structures of the museum and running costs, including additional staffing, security, maintenance, etc. On the assumption that the £10 million allocated in this year's budget should be spent by the end of the year, I have asked the interim board for its views on the most cost effective use of this money.
With regard to its second task, which relates to the future direction of the museum generally, the interim board is aware of my commitment to remedying the present imbalance between Dublin and the regions with regard to archaeological collections of national importance. It is also aware of my intention to bring forward legislative proposals to establish an autonomous board for the museum. With these aspects in mind, I have asked the interim board to advise me on how the National Museum might achieve its full potential as the primary repository of our artistic and cultural heritage and to prepare a five year strategic plan addressing in particular: the housing of appropriate elements of the museum's collections, including the National Folklife Collection at venues outside Dublin, having regard to the Collins Barracks development; staff numbers and structures necessary for the museum, and a comprehensive strategy for identifying and securing non-Exchequer sources of funding so as to achieve a reasonable balance between direct Exchequer funding and other sources of funding.
I have arranged for the names of members of the interim board to be circulated in the form of a tabular statement.
Statement.
The membership of the Interim Board of the National Museum is as follows:
Ms Barbara Nugent (Chairperson),
Chief Executive, The Sunday Business Post;
Ms Sybil Connolly,
Fashion and Craft Designer;
Mr. John Joe Costin,
President of the Board of Visitors of the National Museum;
Mr. Seán Cromien,
Secretary, Department of Finance;
Mr. Tadhg Ó Dubhshláine,
Lecturer in Irish, St. Patrick's College, Maynooth;
Ms Máire de Paor,
Archaeologist, Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Museum;
Ms Mary Doyle,
Department of the Taoiseach;
Mr. Dermot Egan,
Hon. President of COTHÚ;
Col. Harry Johnston,
Acting Officer Commanding, Eastern Command;
Ms Anne Kelly,
Director, Arts Administration Studies, UCD;
Ms Phylis O'Kane,
Peter Owens Advertising Agency;
Ms Shelia O'Donnell,
Architect, O'Donnell and Tuomey Architects;
Mr. Tony Reynell,
Chartered Accountant;
Mr. Aidan Walsh,
Secretary, Northern Ireland Museums Council and Museum.
Do I take it from the Minister's response that, apart from the visitors' board of the National Museum who advises him on the museum, work is well advanced on putting on a statutory footing a board for the National Museum, there is also an inter-departmental group dealing with this matter? The Minister has also seen fit in recent weeks to appoint an interim board to further advise him on the future of the National Museum and the Collins Barracks project. Does the Minister accept that to have four groups advising him on the future of the National Museum appears to most observers to be excessive? One of the biggest problems of the National Museum in recent years is that it has been starved of finance. We would be well advised to expedite work on the development of Collins Barracks rather than appointing additional quangos and groups on the project.
I am disappointed at the spirit of the Deputy's supplementary question. The Boards of Visitors is a structure put in place for a purpose and it has a particular role in the National Museum. It is my intention to put the museums on a modern basis to enable their directors and boards of management to run the institutions to the end of this century and into the next. We need to advance the Collins Barracks project and we should not wait until legislation has been passed. I would have thought that the establishment of an interim board of professionals who will report not only on the specific task of the Collins Barracks project, on which it will report within a month, which even by the private business sector would be a good example, but also on the other issues I have listed, on which it will report within three months, is a wise and prudent way of spending the public's money. There has been a marvellous public response to this significant change in provision for the museum, which is our major repository, our major cultural institution.