The issue of the sale of Irish art is complex. On the one hand, while it can be argued that the sale of major paintings to buyers outside Ireland constitutes a loss to the country, it can equally be argued that the nature of the international art investment market serves to draw attention to the great talent of visual artists from this country and that many purchases at international sales of Irish art are by Irish-based collectors.
With regard to the specific auctions on 21 and 22 May 1997, with works to be auctioned by Christies and Sotheby's, it is not a matter for me as Minister to mandate people to purchase major works of art. The cultural institutions under my aegis act autonomously in acquiring items for their collections. It is a matter for those bodies to decide on priorities within their acquisitions budget and their priorities between acquisitions and other needs. They establish the figure that is available every year. In the case of the Connolly papers to which the Deputy referred and which were auctioned last year, the National Library bid for the papers up to a level it considered appropriate to their value but was not prepared to pay a sum in excess of what it believed to be a reasonable price.
With regard to the sales referred to by the Deputy, the National Gallery is the main institution under my aegis which will be considering whether it will participate. Even if I were aware that an institution under my aegis had the intention of participating in a particular auction for a particular item, I would not consider it desirable to comment given the possible effect on prices if it became known that an institution was bidding.
I appreciate that in approaching the issue of acquisition generally the institutions under my aegis are constrained by the funding available to them from the Exchequer and from other sources. As I have said on many previous occasions, I am not satisfied these institutions have sufficient resources, financial and staffing, to play the full part they could and should be playing in Irish life. While I have been able to provide significant increases in the Exchequer funding since becoming Minister, which helps in developing their programmes including acquisitions, this was from a very low base and funding is still not at a satisfactory level.
In order to further facilitate major acquisitions by the institutions this Government introduced a provision in the 1995 Finance Act permitting tax relief on donation of important cultural objects to our main collecting institutions. This provision is now worth £750,000 in a calendar year. The initiative has been successful in attracting a number of important gifts, including the archives of the great Irish painter, Jack B. Yeats, and the original architectural drawings of the Houses of the Oireachtas. I hope to see this generous tax relief provision continue to be availed of by donors now and in the years ahead.
I am concerned to ensure key items that are crucial to our heritage are kept in Ireland. For this reason the Cultural Institutions Act, 1997, provides for the establishment of a register of key cultural items. Export of these items can be prohibited when they have been in public care for a certain period or deferred for up to one year when the items are in private custody. This period would allow time to negotiate their purchase if considered desirable. Of course, as was discussed during the Oireachtas debates on this Act, any protective measures must balance private property rights and the public interest.