Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 7 Feb 1996

Vol. 461 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - National Library.

Miss de Valera

I have initiated this Adjournment debate on the National Library as this national cultural institution continues to be neglected by the Government. In 1992 its strategic plan was launched by Deputy Reynolds, Taoiseach at the time, and given support by the Fianna Fáil-led Administration. Now, under this Government the National Library does not feature very highly on the agenda.

No doubt we will hear from the Minister that there has been a handsome percentage increase in the funding for the National Library from his Government. However, such an argument is disingenuous considering the low base on which this percentage is measured.

The service position remains exactly the same as that of 1992. The library has to close two mornings per week to enable opening those nights. The manuscript room is also closed at lunch hour and tea time. Its present allocation of funds means that the National Library is in the news more often on the basis of collections it has failed to acquire rather than on its notable acquisitions. The lack of financial resources means that the acquisition, preservation, conservation and exploitation of its collections are severely hampered.

In December 1993 an on-line public access catalogue was launched. However, a researcher using the library now has to search through three separate catalogues. Retrospective conversion of these catalogues is an urgent requirement and a project which needs funds on a once-off basis.

Similar injections of moneys, again on a once-off basis, are needed to convert the library's rich holding of maps, prints, drawings and manuscripts to machinereadable format. The library needs funds to explore the prospect of the Internet as well.

At present large collections of valuable manuscripts remain unavailable because of lack of staff to catalogue it. When the Minister refers to the percentage increase which this library received, I call on him to assess his position in the light of the following figures. I would like to compare three national libraries — the National Library of Wales, the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Ireland. The National Library of Wales has five million collections, the National Library of Scotland has 6.5 million and the National Library of Ireland has five million. Staffing for the National Library of Wales numbers 225, for the National Library of Scotland it is 252, and for the National Library of Ireland it is 65. The budget for the National Library of Wales is just under £6 million, the budget for the National Library of Scotland is £9.23 million plus £2.1 million for capital projects, and the budget for the National Library of Ireland is £2.1 million. The population these libraries serve is 2.8 million for the National Library of Wales, five million for the National Library of Scotland and 5.5 million for the National Library of Ireland. Surely on foot of these figures the Minister can no longer claim that his stewardship has greatly improved the lot of the National Library in financial or staffing terms. The Minister made some play out of the photographic archive in Temple Bar which is almost finished but where are the extra staff required to run the project? Temporary cataloguers employed to deal with a considerable backlog of material have had to be let go due to the public service embargo. Although capital development projects have been planned and are well advanced, where is the money to come from for them?

The National Library deserves the financial support of this Government as it provides a very valuable service to the people and to many overseas readers— approximately 30 per cent of the library's annual total number of readers are from overseas. I hope the Minister will recognise the need for once-off funding for the projects mentioned and will commit himself and his Government to addressing and resolving the serious problem of funding and staffing in the National Library without further delay. These persistent problems can lead only to frustration and the lowering of morale among an expert and dedicated staff.

Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht (Mr. M. Higgins)

I am grateful to Deputy de Valera for raising this matter and providing me with an opportunity to clarify a number of matters and speak on the position in the National Library.

On the figures the Deputy gave for Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the comparisons would have been much more difficult if she had made them in 1992. They are certainly an indictment of my predecessors' support for the National Library. It would be unusual to suggest that the difficulties have arisen in the past three years.

Miss de Valera

The Minister has had three years to try to improve the situation.

Mr. M. Higgins

In so far as the Deputy encourages me in that regard, this is just another example of Members suggesting greater public expenditure while on the Estimates and in the budget debate suggesting that we cut it back.

Miss de Valera

It is up to the Minister to fight for his own Department.

Mr. M. Higgins

There was not a gig out of the Deputy in relation to the period before this.

Miss de Valera

That is the responsibility of the Minister.

Mr. M. Higgins

It is the Deputy's responsibility to be far more accurate than she has been. I would not argue that the National Library or any of the national cultural institutions under my aegis has the full resources I would like and consider necessary for institutions of their stature. However, developments in the public sector must take place within overall budgetary and staffing parameters determined by Government policy. Even the strategic plan for the National Library, published in 1992, to which the Deputy refers, intended to cover the period 1992-97 explicitly recognised that there would be severe constraints on public expenditure during the period covered by the plan and that it would have to be implemented in this context.

In the broader context, the factual position with regard to the National Library since the establishment of my Department at the beginning of 1993 does not bear out certain impressions given in recent press coverage. Presumably the Deputy's question is a reflection of these impressions, that for example no increased resources have been provided to enable the National Library to fulfil the objectives set out in its strategic plan and that the library has a low priority in the allocation of resources. These impressions are quite erroneous. I am strongly committed to the development of the national cultural institutions as a central part of Irish life.

The facts are as follows. Funds provided by my Department's Vote in 1995 in respect of the National Library, excluding salaries and the library's own income were three times the funds provided in 1992. What a legacy I inherited when I started in 1992. That is an increase of 227 per cent in three years during a time of relatively low inflation. Excluding grants for specific items and administrative expenses, the library's grant-in-aid increased by 120 per cent in the same three year period. This increase of 120 per cent compares with a 46 per cent increase in the combined funding available to the national cultural institutions funded from my Department's Vote by way of grant-in-aid.

Miss de Valera

Why does the Minister give us percentages instead of the figures?

Mr. M. Higgins

If one takes it that the baseline is low, the baseline is the same for the other cultural institutions and one is still comparing an increase of 120 per cent with a 46 per cent increase. If the funding for specific projects is included, the increase in the grant assistance for the national cultural institutions funded by my Department's Vote is of the order of 66 per cent whereas the increase for the National Library for the same period is 250 per cent.

On staff resources, I am the first to recognise the inadequacy of the basic levels, a problem with a long historic background reaching back to the foundations of the State and beyond, a central problem holding back the development of all the national cultural institutions. Even in this most intractable of areas, there has been tangible improvement for the library. At the end of 1995 there were over 68 staff employed compared with just over 60 at the end of 1992 when my Department was established. I would wish that this increase was much greater. A proposal initiated by my Department to provide a deputy director is under examination. I place on record my appreciation and admiration of the commitment, professionalism and contribution of the director of the library.

The library facilities are also being developed. The new photographic archive building provided for the National Library in Temple Bar was recently completed at a total cost of £2.92 million, including £1.6 million through the Vote of the Department of the Environment, of which 75 per cent was funded from Structural Funds, £825,000 through the Vote of the Office of Public Works and £495,375 provided by my Department's Vote. This important new facility is to open in the autumn of this year. Another major capital development at an advanced stage of planning and costing £1.5 million involves the conversion of a building at the back of the library, known as the Racquet Hall. This facility will provide long needed space for conservation work, potential accommodation for the newsplan project and an in-house bindery service. The other significant project in train relates to the planned conversion of the National College of Art and Design building partially for use by the library. This will provide, among many other facilities, much needed visitors' services.

Quite separate from these specific developments, expenditure on accommodation in the National Library was 123 per cent higher in 1995 than 1992.

Miss de Valera

Percentages again.

Mr. M. Higgins

They are percentages. The baseline is low, but the questions should be put to those who were responsible for the low and inadequate baseline. When we have the next discussion on public expenditure, will the Deputy stand up and honestly say she wants an exception made of the library? If so, then she will be taken for real.

Miss de Valera

The Minister has to make the argument to make an exception of his Department when dealing with the Department of Finance.

Mr. M. Higgins

My Department has done well in its allocation.

Of course, the development of our national cultural institutions should not be seen purely in terms of the monetary or staff resources available to them, however critical they are. My role also is to nurture and facilitate these institutions to realise their full potential. Deputies will be aware that the preparation of legislation on the national cultural institutions, which will among other things establish the library as an autonomous State body, is at an advanced stage. I have been heartened at the library's initiatives in recent years to heighten its public profile and deepen a sense of its importance within the national psyche. Partly as a result of this effort, what might have been acceptable a few years ago is no longer the case. I welcome this deepening of concern and am prepared to meet the challenge posed by it.

The Deputy can be assured that my ongoing efforts in all aspects of my role in the library's activities, ranging from the improvement, reform and development of its governance and administrative structures to recent major assistance for acquisitions of heritage material, to funding its operation and development are geared towards assisting the National Library to fulfil and expand its role as one of the country's premier repositories of our heritage.