Skip to main content
Normal View

National Cultural Institutions

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 28 November 2012

Wednesday, 28 November 2012

Questions (19, 47)

Michael Colreavy

Question:

19. Deputy Michael Colreavy asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide a detailed breakdown of the €1m in costs and fees he expects to save as a result of the abolition of the boards of the National Museum and the National Library; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53060/12]

View answer

Dessie Ellis

Question:

47. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps he has put in place for the National Museum and the National Library to share services such as communications, procurement, security and marketing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53059/12]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 19 and 47 together.

The Deputies will be aware that, as part of a range of reforms recently agreed by Government under the Public Service Reform Plan, it was decided that the existing National Archives of Ireland (NAI) governance model will be applied to the National Library of Ireland (NLI) and the National Museum of Ireland (NMI). The National Archives Advisory Council will be retained, with a reduced membership operating pro bono. A single statutory NLI and NMI Advisory Council will operate pro bono in place of the existing boards. Board membership will be reduced overall by some 60%.

The NAI will continue to operate, as currently, with a statutorily independent Director, within the ambit of my Department, and a similar model will be put in place for the Directors of the NLI and NMI. A robust shared services model will be deployed - through my Department in relation to corporate support services and by formal inter-institutional agreement in relation to operational services.

A number of meetings have already taken place at senior management level between the NLI, NMI, NAI and my Department to develop detailed implementation plans regarding this shared services model. Communications, procurement, security and marketing are some of the operational areas being discussed by the institutions and it is expected that early savings will be made in these areas, with long-term savings projected in other areas of work.

The €1m savings referred to relates to initial annual savings in reduced administrative costs and fees for all of the rationalisation measures relating to my Department, which were recently agreed by Government. The expected savings of €1m do not refer only to board fees of the NMI and NLI, though this will, in itself, be a significant saving over time. It is expected that further savings will be identified as the various cost saving measures across the different national cultural institutions are implemented.

Full details of all the reform measures agreed by Government in relation to bodies within my Department's ambit can be found on my Department's website at http://www.ahg.gov.ie/en/PublicServicereform/.

Top
Share