I see on this Estimate there is a salary of £600 put down for a person described as director in the National College of Art. I would like to inquire what was the position in respect of this whole institution. As far as I have been able to follow it, what used to be called the School of Art was transformed into the National College of Art somewhere about the year 1936. In 1938 certain appointments had to be made to it. The first approach to it was the usual one of advertising the posts with a statement as to qualifications. The first advertisement called for qualifications in Irish. I do not know what happened in response to that. The second time the advertisement was issued the qualification of Irish was abandoned, certainly abandoned in respect of one of the posts for which it had been previously insisted on in the advertisement.
Some time after these advertisements had been issued, a statement was made that, first of all, in response to the whole advertisement, nobody with a knowledge of Irish could be found to apply, and secondly, nobody in Ireland could be found to fill certain posts. The result of that was that about the year 1938, three appointments were made—an appointment as assistant director of a gentleman who, I think, came from Holland; as professor of sculpture, of a gentleman who came from Czechoslovakia, and as assistant professor of sculpture, of a gentleman who came from England. These three continued in their respective posts until the start of the war, when the Czechoslovak and the Englishman resigned. I think both of them went back to their respective countries.
In the meantime, the director of the school had died, and the assistant-director, a native of Holland, held on. The post of director was advertised, and there was quite a number of candidates who applied, including the headmasters of certain schools of art in the country. They were told after a bit that they were not regarded as suitable. I think there was the usual demand for a knowledge of Irish in connection with this appointment. However, these people, some 12 or 14 of them, all natives of the country, all holding down administrative posts— posts requiring certain craftsmanship, —in schools in the country, were all told that they were unsuitable.
Eventually, the matter was raised by question in the House here, and the Minister said it had not been found possible to select a candidate possessing the necessary qualifications. We have again the position that was found in 1938 with regard to the professor of sculpture and assistant-professor of sculpture and assistant-director of the school, that there is nobody in the country qualified for the post. However, the matter lay there for a bit, and the people who had applied, against whose work in their respective schools there never had been the slightest complaint, had been told in a most comprehensive way that they were unsuitable. They were all kept on the qui vive with regard to the appointment. Recently, it has been announced that a certain gentleman has been appointed acting director. What that means I do not know. I understand that the assistant-director resigned his post as assistant-director, but that may have been only for the purpose of the selection of director. It may be that he is reappointed and has gone back.
The position was that at a particular period there was neither a director nor assistant director, and there were two professorships vacant. The person appointed, according to the statement in the Irish Independent of mid-May, is an art inspector in the Technical Instruction Branch of the Department of Education. I am quite sure that he is a very distinguished person. There are a number of statements made about him here: he is prominent amongst the younger Irish artists, with special distinction in water-colour painting; a constant exhibitor at the Royal Hibernian Academy; a fluent Irish speaker, who received his training in the Old Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, and who became an inspector of the Department in 1939; he has close contact with the working of the schools of art in Cork, Limerick and Waterford; and is closely associated with the National College of Art, of which he is an associate examiner. Every one of these qualifications could be bettered by some of the people who applied amongst the original 13 and who were told that they were unsuitable. It is invidious to mention names, but I can refer to the Professor of Painting in the National College of Art and the assistant professor.
Let us take the professor of painting and go through the list of qualifications of the gentleman who has been appointed acting director. He is a fluent Irish speaker; he has longer and better training both in the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and elsewhere; and in comparison with this gentleman, of whom it is said that he has close contact with the work in the schools of art in Cork, Limerick and Waterford, he has been in association with the Dublin school for many years, and at the moment is chief professor of painting therein. The gentleman appointed is said to be closely associated with the work of the National College of Art. I could imagine nobody more closely associated with that work than the professor of painting in the particular college. This gentleman who has been appointed is an associate examiner, while the professor, of course, is an examiner.
The situation is that, in 1938, we had to scour the world to get a Czechoslovak, a Dutchman and an Englishman to fill three important posts, and then, when the director of this college died, and when we had applications made by the 13 best qualified people Ireland had, they were simply told peremptorily that they were unsuitable, with no statement given as to the points of qualification they lacked. There are two or three who are pre-eminent in all the matters referred to here as the qualifications this young gentleman has, and they are all passed over. They are invited to apply for examination, and the usual farce is gone through of taking entrance fees and subscriptions from them, and imposing travelling expenses on them, and then they are told they are not suitable. No statement is made with regard to the deficiency of any one of them, and, when it has all lain there for about a year and a half, a young man who, as late as 1939, became an inspector in the art section of the Department, is put in.
I should imagine that this is another example of the growing tendency to have people who are either civil servants, or very shortly removed from that position, put into these important positions, which certainly ought to be held for people who are more definitely professional in their outlook and their work than the civil servant can be. I know nothing more than what is printed in this newspaper with regard to the person who has been given the appointment. I take it from the phrase used—"acting director"—that it is something in the nature of a temporary appointment, but I should like to hear from the Minister what is the position and what is the situation now with regard to the assistant director. Did he resign, and was it for the purpose of having himself considered amongst those applying for the directorship? Has he since been reinstated in his post as assistant and what happened with regard to the two people who were in the section dealing with sculpture and who resigned at the start of the war? What was the matter which led to the mass condemnation of the 12 or 13 people who had very definite technical qualifications, as well as Irish language and administrative qualifications, and who were simply told that they were unsuitable?
