Ms Catherine Heaney:

Very well. Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach, na Teachtaí agus na Seanadóirí. As chair of the National Museum of Ireland, I am pleased to be in a position to co-operate with the committee. I understand the committee has a very special and deep interest in HR issues as they pertain to the National Museum of Ireland. I also wish to refer to the statement just made by the Chairman as to the limitations and legal obligations of witnesses. In addition to his citation, I wish to place firmly on the record that the National Museum of Ireland has an absolute obligation as an employer to maintain confidentiality and respect for all our employees, past and present. This obligation of confidentiality is absolutely paramount and therefore precludes us as the employer from commenting on or answering any questions relating to current or former employees. I hope our colleagues, the members, will understand this position and our obligation.

In preparation for this engagement, I have reflected generally on the issue of HR. Over the past 20 years, I have served on the national executive and international executive of a trade union, sat on the boards of both statutory and not-for-profit organisations, chaired four boards and run two organisations including my current business, which employs 14 staff. It is my experience that even in the smallest organisation, even where practices are very good, HR issues do arise. I would be surprised if there is anyone in this room who has not had to deal with a HR or industrial relations, IR, issue. I say this not to excuse the HR problems the museum has experienced but everything deserves a context.

In my statement and in the time allowed to me I will not speak on every detail we submitted to the committee for its consideration. Rather, I have chosen to highlight some key points and hope by the end of this hearing that the committee will have the adequate information to further its deliberations and make whatever recommendations it sees fit.

In many ways, in an organisation that is older than the State itself, it is only possible for us to account for the HR function at the museum in more recent years. It is important at this point to state that Mr. Ó Floinn, the director, has been in place since 2013 and I have been in place as board chair since July 2016. Therefore, we can only really discuss with any great sense of conviction the issues to which we have been exposed in our time.

It is important to make the general point that the museum in its long lifetime has had many parents, moving around a number of Government Departments before eventually becoming an autonomous body 12 years ago.

The year 2005 marked when the board was appointed to the museum and the HR function started to be devolved from the Department with responsibility for the arts. By 2008, the museum's HR unit had achieved a full staff complement. By the following year, the unit had started to haemorrhage. By 2011, the training and recruitment officer, the HR officer and the HR manager had either left or retired. In addition, a public sector recruitment moratorium and a huge reduction in funding prevented the museum from addressing the deficits. At this point, the Department started to consider the establishment of a shared services unit with the National Museum and the National Library of Ireland. At the same time, the management of the museum and staff associations sought a review by the LRC of the HR function and situation. The review highlighted poor communications and poor dispute resolution by the museum. A forum chaired by the LRC set about resolving the issues through restructuring and strategic planning among other wide-ranging measures, which have been supplied to the committee in the pack that we issued last week. In 2013, much of the HR function and associated staff effectively went back to the museum, but the function was not returned to the museum until last year. As the committee can see, even within that short space of time, the HR function has had many parents. It has not remained static or in one place and it has not been developed.

The HR function now rests with the museum corporate services unit and is managed by the head of operations. A key action of that unit was the health and well-being survey, the results and recommendations of which were published in November. I am aware that the information was shared with the committee. The results showed that there were continuing issues relating to staff morale, HR processes and trust. A programme of implementing measures to address these issues is now under way.

I wish to draw the attention of members to the fact that we have included a summary of complaints, personal injury cases and cases before mediation in the submission that was furnished to the committee last week. For the record, I would like to state that there are no cases of bullying or harassment currently under investigation or currently subject to mediation at the National Museum of Ireland. We continue to deal with a small number of HR matters. Given the nature of HR that I alluded to at the very start, HR will always probably feature as part of our work and as issues.

HR issues have cost the museum and the State both in terms of reputation and financially. Any negative impact on those who have been affected is something that is of concern to me, the board and the management of the National Museum of Ireland. Since taking office in July 2016, the board of the National Museum has worked very hard with the executive to ensure that we achieve high standards in all of the functions vested in us in our enabling legislation. We are well advanced, as this committee may be aware because we invited it to participate in the consultation on our master plan or long-term sustainable roadmap for the next 20 years and beyond. We have also completed the process of appointing internal auditors. They will be charged with the function of auditing all our internal controls and systems, including the HR function. Recently we allocated one of our full meetings to reviewing a report that we asked the executive to prepare on the museum's HR function. We have since agreed a range of measures to achieve excellency in our HR function. That is what we have sought to do, to achieve excellency in HR. The decision we took as a board to consider HR was taken well ahead of media and political interest in the museum's HR area. Since considering the report and agreeing a board resolution on the matter, I am also pleased to say that we are being actively supported by the Minister and her Department to enact a series of HR measures. We are working more at a macro-organisational matter to implement the master plan.

When I appeared before this committee back in September, I said that I was ambitious for the museum and so was my board. That is why we joined the board, prepared applications and went through a process to be appointed as public servants to the National Museum of Ireland. I am really committed to excellence and planning for the future.

Over the past number of months, we have developed a dynamic relationship with the Department. We are entering an exciting time in the whole arena of culture and heritage through the Creative Ireland project and recent policy decisions. The museum needs a strong organisation and cohort who function well and respond to change and opportunities ahead. I view this as a highly achievable outcome.

I would like to use this opportunity to say something about the negative headlines and the profiling of the HR issue at the museum. As some members will know, I am a big fan of the museum. Before I became the chairperson, I visited at least one museum a month, if not more. As chairperson of the museum, I visit at least one of the museum's sites once a week, sometimes more and sometimes twice or three times. In the past nine months, I have come in contact with some hugely dynamic people who work at the museum and do the State a huge public service. Last year, as people will be aware, the museum created with very little resources an exhibition entitled Proclaiming a Republic. As I have done previously, I urge the committee to engage with the exhibition as it is an excellent showcase of the 1916 Rising and the events around it. To date, 170,000 visitors have seen the exhibition.

At the end of March, I was pleased to open an exhibition of contemporary work that celebrates 60 years of a diplomatic relationship between Ireland and Japan. The exhibition focused on the Sodeisha movement. The project is important for us as a museum because over the past 100 years our collecting policy focused on gathering items that told the story of Ireland and, in many ways, we missed out on some of the cultural developments around the globe. The Sodeisha movement was instrumental in changing ceramic arts around the world. I know that it has been hugely influential on Irish ceramic artists. The decision by the museum to collect contemporary international collections has been an important departure for me. The exhibition also defines and celebrates Ireland's relationship with Japan.

I noted in recent weeks our outreach collaboration with the national neighbourhood programme operated by the Dublin City Council. The museum has demonstrated that it is one of the excellent partners in the initiative where community engagement, particularly in the more disadvantaged communities surrounding the museum's catchment area, has ensured that people can engage and explore the museums in ways that they have not previously done so.

I am pleased to say that on Easter Monday we will open the Proclaiming a Republic exhibition from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. as part of the Cruinniú na Cásca celebrations. Normally we are closed on Mondays but staff have facilitated the event.

I have given a snapshot of developments at the museum. They are in addition to our daily functions around caring for, acquiring and documenting collections to serve the State. All of those achievements would not have happened if staff did not go over and beyond the call of normal duty. It demonstrates the passion and interest that staff have in the museum's work.

I have established an effective working relationship with the director and management of the museum. I serve with a very committed and hardworking board who all work on a pro bono basis as part of our contribution to the National Museum of Ireland. The kind of dedication and commitment that I have experienced at the museum is not headline making but it is mostly what one sees and experiences when one interacts with the museum.

As a country, we have been picking ourselves up off the ground and the museum is not alone. The museum will commence a journey with a new master plan over the coming months. It is future facing but learning lessons from the past. We are oiling all of the wheels so that we can move best to serve the public in the decades and centuries ahead. I believe HR is part of management and will always be there. The stronger the HR function is, the fewer problems will emerge, which is what we are trying to achieve. I am happy to take further questions.