Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Nov 2001

Vol. 543 No. 4

Written Answers. - National Museum.

Ivor Callely

Question:

31 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands the progress in completing the inventory of artefacts in the National Museum's collection; the estimated percentage of items included in the inventory; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26557/01]

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands (Miss de Valera)

The Deputy will be aware that the National Museum of Ireland has been engaged since 1985 on a project to document particular collections, including the preparation of an inventory catalogue on computer. This is part of a long-term programme to prepare a full computerised inventory of the holdings of the National Museum. In the first instance the project has focused on objects moving to new accommodation at Collins Barracks, Dublin and more recently, Turlough Park House, Castlebar, County Mayo.

During the course of this project some 87,000 records have been entered onto a computerised inventory, an increase of 17,000 since April 2000 when this question was raised previously by the Deputy. I am unable to provide a precise indication at this stage as to what percentage of the overall museum collection this represents given the absence of reliable data on the size of the collection which I understand, however, may be as much as five million objects, many of which are recorded in older inventories which have for the most part not been converted to computer databases.