I welcome the Minister of State to the House.
The issue I am raising relates to the industrial dispute at the new headquarters of the National Museum in Collins Barracks, Dublin 7. The official opening took place on 18 September but it was unfortunate that the IMPACT union felt obliged to have a one day strike that day to protest against any meaningful action to resolve the dispute that has been going on for a considerable period.
The result of that one day strike was that, while the opening took place in the Taoiseach's constituency, he could not attend because he felt unable to pass the picket. Consequently, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Deputy de Valera, was left in the unenviable position of having to pass a picket to perform the opening on the Taoiseach's behalf. I am sure that caused considerable embarrassment to the Minister, although she spoke to the strikers outside and made a commitment to do all in her power to resolve the dispute at the earliest possible opportunity.
Approximately 2,500 guests were invited to the launch but only 500 attended. Many more people were outside the museum with the pickets than were inside at the opening ceremony. Some £70,000 was spent on the launch, but it was a severe embarrassment to everybody and the whole day was marred by the industrial dispute.
The situation is particularly serious considering the new museum was an initiative of the Labour-Fianna Fáil Government of 1992-94. It was one of the flagships of development with literally tens of millions of pounds being invested in this enormous development of the old Collins Barracks. At that time it was the oldest military barracks still in use in Europe. Now it is to be put to this heritage use where, for the first time, we would be in a position to put on display the many treasures in the National Museum which, because of lack of space, we were unable to exhibit. The intention was that at last we would have sufficient space to bring these treasures out of the dungeons, dust them down and put them on display. Unfortunately none of that work has taken place because of long standing industrial action, and the few people who visit the museum at present are going into largely open, empty exhibition areas. That is a disaster. I am raising the issue as it is one of concern in my constituency. Many people are employed by the National Museum and many others are affected directly by it. As I understand it over the last 15 years there have been no normal promotions and approximately half of the curatorial staff are in acting positions or in lieu of that they are on part time contracts. That is totally unsatisfactory for a national museum in terms of personnel and resources. It is a festering sore the matter has been ongoing for some time. I understand Minister de Valera met the union in the last week or so and she has already indicated she will do her utmost to resolve the matter. I also understand there were some difficulties with the Minister for Finance and I am not sure to what extent she has been able to bring her persuasive powers to bear on him in this affair.
The point of raising this matter on the Adjournment is to draw the attention of the Government to a serious issue that has been going on for a considerable period of time. It is sad that it should take place in this context with dedicated staff who do not feel that they are being properly recognised, when they are not being given the managerial and promotional structures they would have expected, leading to their union, IMPACT, taking industrial action. Various forms of industrial action have taken place in terms of non co-operation in the preparation of exhibitions for the museum and this is the first strike that took place. They are not telling people not to go into the museum, they are encouraging them to go in but they explain to them the reason they are will see so little in the museum is due to the industrial dispute. I urge the Minister to look into the matter and to bring to his colleague the concerns that have been expressed locally and by the union in question, and see if we can get an early resolution of the dispute.