Mr. Sean Rainbird:

I thank the Chairman for his invitation to attend. As well as its Exchequer Vote, the National Gallery of Ireland generates income from a variety of activities, including retail, donations, benefactions and sponsorships. Under its enabling legislation, the board of governors and guardians may allocate its own resources at its discretion in the gallery's best interests. The situation has obtained for many years. In recent years, the gallery's Exchequer Vote has been severely cut. Calls on the gallery's own resources have, therefore, increased in order to enable the gallery to offer the public service the board and the executive believe essential to fulfilling the mission of the gallery.

As a result, the board of governors and guardians believe it was in the best interests of the gallery and its visitors to utilise the gallery's own resources to make up some of the shortfall in its Exchequer Vote allocation. They did this in order to maintain the high standard of public service commensurate with the gallery's reputation and strategic objectives. The case for maintaining the excellence of the gallery's service to the public during a period of partial closure was made all the more compelling because of the disruption to normal operations caused by the extensive phased refurbishment works.

Operating costs previously funded in full or in part from the gallery's Exchequer Vote were defrayed by own resources in the amount of €298,000 in 2013. This financing from own resources continued in 2014 and is expected to amount to €499,000 in 2015.

The Comptroller and Auditor General raised concerns about this. As a consequence, the gallery's separate Vote allocation was terminated from 2015 onwards and was replaced by an Exchequer grant allocated as a subhead of our parent Department's Vote, as we have heard.

This change represents a dramatic loss of profile for the gallery. However, after careful consideration, the board and its executive believe that as long as the gallery continues to generate and utilise its own resources at the board's discretion and the perception of independence from central government is maintained, this change will not adversely affect its ambitious plans.

The National Gallery is in the middle of a period of major capital investment in gallery infrastructure, funded by a combination of Exchequer sources and a substantial contribution from the gallery's own resources. The gallery has welcomed a commitment from its public funding partners that its expectation to continue to generate and for the board to allocate its own resources in support of services to the public will be fulfilled.