Vol. 477 No. 2
31 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the progress, if any, made towards introducing a formal mechanism to encourage people to donate paintings and works of art to the State in view of the fact that this matter has been raised by Deputy Callely on a number of occasions; the consideration, if any, he has given to such a formal mechanism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8845/97]
The Deputy will be aware from replies to previous parliamentary questions on this matter that the Minister has long been in favour of the introduction of a formal scheme to encourage people to donate paintings and works of art to the State.
Section 176 of the Finance Act, 1995, provides for a scheme under which tax relief is given for the donation to national collections of pre-eminent heritage items up to an aggregate limit of £500,000 in any one year. This limit was subsequently increased to £750,000 in the Finance Act, 1996. Under this scheme an independent assessment committee, comprising the directors of the National Library, Irish Museum of Modern Art, National Museum, National Archives, National Gallery as well as the director of the Arts Council and the chairperson of the Heritage Council, was established to decide whether an object (or objects) would qualify for tax relief. The donations must comprise an archaeological item, archive, book, record, manuscript or painting (or collection of these) valued at more than £75,000 and be deemed by the assessment committee to be pre-eminent in its class.
The committee has processed successfully a number of cases, resulting in substantial donations to our national cultural institutions.
As required by the Finance Act, 1995, the outcomes of applications made to the committee were detailed in the Revenue Commissioners report for 1995 and details of future applications will be published in future reports of the commissioners.
