Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

May I finish? The reason I asked these questions is that it has come to our knowledge that for a long period of time, back to 2011, there has been reports written by psychotherapists and psychiatrists and a large number of internal reports commissioned by the National Museum itself which shows a significant level of unease and difficulties among staff there. This has happened over a period of at least eight years, that we know about. We have an opportunity to see if we can help fix that issue, to see if we can shine a light on it to see if we can bring it to the attention of the Department at such a level that the Department will have to deal with it and to give the necessary supports to the Chairman of the Board and the director of the museum to see if we can resolve these issues. If it were the case that these were one-off reports or one-off items, it would not be my intention to bring it to the committee's knowledge, but the fact that this has been ongoing for such a long time, it would be wrong to allow this to proceed without a general focus on it.

If we want to discuss further the method in which we do that, I am very open to taking on board the views of the committee on this. Perhaps we should adjourn and go into private session and refocus on the rules of engagement to do so. It is my desire that we shine the necessary focus on it.