The purpose of this Bill is to enable a sum not exceeding £450,000 to be withdrawn from the funds of suitors and applied towards the cost of rebuilding the Abbey Theatre and the Cork Opera House.
The funds of suitors are the cash and securities belonging to suitors and other persons which have been transferred to or paid into or deposited in the High Court. In the ordinary way, they may be used only for the benefit of those entitled. The funds are under the control of the High Court, and, subject to that control, are managed by, and stand in the name of, the Accountant of the Courts of Justice.
The total liability of the accountant in respect of funds of suitors on the 30th April, 1966, was £17,640,000. Assets held by the accountant—mainly securities—amounted to £16,812,000. The difference between the amount of the liabilities and the amount of the assets on hands—£828,000—represents the aggregate of the moneys which have been withdrawn from the funds of suitors over the past 200 years under the authority of various Acts of the Parliament of Ireland, the Parliament of the United Kingdom and the Oireachtas. All these Acts indemnified suitors for any loss which they might sustain by reason of the withdrawals, and these indemnities are backed by the Central Fund. Thus, a portion of the funds of suitors amounting to £828,000 is represented not by cash or securities held by the Accountant but simply by the liability of the Central Fund to indemnify the suitors against loss.
The money to be withdrawn under the present Bill will be taken from the sizeable cash balance which is maintained by the accountant in a current account in the Bank of Ireland. This cash balance amounts at the present time to £860,000 and is constantly growing. Apart altogether from the fact that, as under previous Acts, suitors will enjoy a complete indemnity against loss, I am fully satisfied that the sum of £450,000 may safely be withdrawn from this cash balance.
Part of the funds of suitors has already been applied to meeting the cost of rebuilding the Abbey Theatre and the Cork Opera House. Under the Funds of Suitors Act, 1959, £250,000 was allocated for the Abbey, and under the last Act, passed in 1963, £50,000 was advanced for the Opera House. Estimates of cost for the two projects, furnished when these Acts were being prepared, indicated that the amounts in question would be sufficient to enable the projects to be completed. However, events proved otherwise, making necessary the further payments provided for in this Bill.
In the case of the Abbey, the estimated cost of rebuilding was put at £235,000 in 1959, with a further £20,000 for professional fees and an unspecified sum for furniture other than seating. It was accordingly considered that an allocation of £250,000 from the funds of suitors would suffice for the purpose. However, rising costs since 1959 have rendered that estimate obsolete. The successful tender, accepted in June, 1962, was for £310,000 for the Abbey and the "shell" of the Peacock Theatre, with an additional £34,000 for fees. The cost of the work is now put at £555,200, to which must be added £95,000 for the Peacock. These sums include professional fees; and the figure for the Peacock covers the full equipment of this theatre. This gives a total cost of £650,000, leaving a gap of £400,000 over and above what has already been made available. Allowing a small margin for contingencies, section 2 (3) of the Bill provides for further withdrawal from the funds of suitors of not more than £415,000 for this purpose.
The increases in the cost of the Abbey and Peacock Theatres, though substantial, are inescapable. They are due to increases in the cost of wages and materials, the effects of the building strike of 1964, changes in plans involving the installation of additional stage equipment, extra dressingroom accommodation and an increase in the height of the stage tower, special reinforcement work on the basement and additional work on adjoining property.
The Abbey authorities have no funds which might be used to meet the increased costs. The sum of £30,000 received in insurance following the fire which destroyed the old Abbey has long since been eaten up by current deficits. The directors of the Abbey are, however, prepared to arrange a public appeal for funds to help meet the cost of the Peacock Theatre. Section 2 (4) of the Bill provides that any sums raised in this way by the Abbey authorities will be paid into the Capital Fund, while section 2 (5) provides that the Minister for Finance shall repay to the funds of suitors any sums paid to the Capital Fund which are not required for the purposes of the section.
The £250,000 made available under the Funds of Suitors Act, 1959, had been spent by July, 1965, and as any further withdrawal from the funds would involve fresh legislation, it was decided that a Supplementary Estimate should be taken on the Vote for Miscellaneous Expenses to ensure that the work in progress might continue. On the 21st July, 1965, the Dáil agreed to a Supplementary Estimate on this Vote in which a sum of £255,010 was included for this purpose. Approximately £185,000 has been issued to the Abbey from this provision. The Bill provides in section 2 (3) that this money will be refunded to the Exchequer. The rest of the money allocated under the Bill will be available to meet the balance of the cost of the project.
In the case of the Cork Opera House, the estimated cost of rebuilding was put at £200,000 in 1963, and it was on the basis of this estimate that the Funds of Suitors Act, 1963, provided for the allocation of a sum of £50,000 to supplement the moneys which had been raised from other sources for the project. As in the case of the Abbey, increases in costs occurred and the final cost of completion amounted to approximately £235,000. This left the Opera House Company to find a sum of £35,000. The directors were compelled to approach the Government for further aid. They felt there was little hope that a further appeal to the public would raise any significant sum, as £82,000 had already been subscribed from private sources. Again, as in the case of the Abbey, a further withdrawal from the funds of suitors would involve fresh legislation. Consequently, as the project was then nearing completion— the new Opera House was, in fact, opened on 31st October, 1965—and final bills were expected shortly, it was decided to take a Supplementary Estimate on the Vote for Miscellaneous Expenses. This was approved by the Dáil on 28th October, 1965, on the understanding that legislation to authorise a further withdrawal from the funds of suitors would be introduced and that any payment from the Vote would be recouped. In fact, a total of £11,514 was issued under this provision and this amount will be refunded to the Exchequer.
The rebuilding of the Abbey Theatre and the rebuilding of the Opera House are enterprises of national concern. It has been recognised that projects of this nature cannot in modern conditions be undertaken successfully without the patronage of the wealthy or of the State or local authorities. There is no doubt that this is a most desirable form of public investment since it will provide suitable entertainment and culture for our own people, provide employment for native artists and, at the same time, constitute an attraction for tourists. The material needs of our citizens have been provided for increasingly in recent years and it is only right that the State should also help in the provision of these centres of entertainment in our two main cities.
Before I conclude I want to mention that, since the text of the Bill was circulated, I have received an application from the Society of King's Inns to have provision made in the Bill for the payment out of the funds of suitors of a sum of £50,000 to cover expenditure which has been incurred on renovation of the Society's buildings. Deputy Cosgrave and Deputy Andrews spoke in support of the Society's application when the Bill was before the Dáil. The position is that, under the Funds of Suitors Act, 1959, the Society was given £45,000 for building renovation, but the Benchers—that is to say, the controlling body of the Society—now claim that, because of a further outbreak of dry rot in the main building and increased building costs, the £45,000 has not proved sufficient. They say that actual expenditure amounted to £94,000 and that the Society has had to sell a large portion of its capital endowments to complete the financing of the work. It is to recoup these capital funds that the sum of £50,000 is now required from the funds of suitors. The Benchers say that, if their capital funds are not made good, they will be unable to carry out the educational and other functions of the Society and to maintain the Society's buildings.
I have not had anything like sufficient time to consider the Benchers' application in the detail required. A request to allocate a sum of £50,000 to the King's Inns is not one that can lightly be agreed. A number of aspects must be considered. For one thing, the future educational activities of the Society may be affected very considerably by the forthcoming recommendations of the Commission on Higher Education. Then again, if we are to provide more assistance from the funds of suitors for the preservation of the King's Inns buildings, we will have to look into the question of the future of the King's Inns Library, which is not frequented to any appreciable extent by the public or by practitioners. Moreover, there are in the Library many valuable works which could more appropriately be housed in the National Library. All these are matters which will have to be examined in some depth before it will be possible for the Government to make any decision in regard to the Society's application. The application is, therefore, not one that can be dealt with in the present Bill.