Ms Beatrice Kelly:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak about the museums standards programme for Ireland. As members have gathered, it is an initiative of An Chomhairle Oidhreachta and the overarching aim is to support museums, including galleries, in telling their stories and caring for their collections through a targeted training programme and an accreditation scheme.

It is a voluntary scheme and there are currently 64 sites taking part in the programme. We started with about 14 in 2007. These range from small voluntary museums in rural areas to national institutions here in Dublin. There is no regulatory basis or national policy for museums in general in Ireland. We have legislation for national institutions but not for museums. This voluntary and supportive approach taken by the MSPI is a bottom up, demand-led initiative which allows the application of international standards to museums of all types across Ireland. We have participants from Allihies Copper Mine Museum to the National Gallery of Ireland and into Northern Ireland with the Museum of Free Derry.

The standards programme has resulted in much higher standards of collection care, visitor services and more robust museum management across all participating museums and in turn this has spurred others to want to join in. These sites received more than 6.5 million visits in 2018, at a conservative estimate using published figures from Fáilte Ireland as well as the participants so it is a sizable number.

I mention what the programme actually does for the museums and collections. Joining the programme has allowed a lot of the smaller and community based museums in particular, to take part in a network of their peers, to receive mentoring and free training - the Heritage Council covers the costs - and to raise professional standards in the services they offer to their visitors and the care of their collections. As museums become accredited they in turn become mentors to their local area or to their area of interest. For example, Muckross House has been mentoring Allihies Copper Mine Museum on some of its paper based collection, Knock Folk Museum in Mayo has mentored the Michael Davitt Museum on a number of aspects and Tipperary County Museum has been mentoring Athy Heritage Centre and Museum so there is a great criss-crossing taking place.

In the past ten years, the council itself has put on more than 70 training workshops, giving institutions access to workshops free of charge on subjects relating to collection care, education, exhibition, museum governance and management and visitor services. In addition, the council offers bursaries to museum staff and volunteers to take part by distance learning in the University of Ulster’s postgraduate diploma in museum practice. This benefits those in remote areas in particular and we have had participants in this from Músaem Chorca Dhuibhne, from Allihies Copper Mine Museum and Athy Heritage Centre and Museum as well as others.

In the past two years, the Heritage Council was in the position to offer a grant scheme, totalling about €45,000 aimed at collection care within the museum standards programme institutions. These grants allowed institutions to carry out specific conservation work on specific objects or to improve display or storage facilities. Sadly, we are not certain at the time of writing or speaking whether the council will be in a position to continue this next year.

As a result of the standards programme, there are now hubs of museums expertise throughout the country. The levels of visitor service, interpretation and collection care have been raised beyond recognition. This work has been achieved by a single co-ordinator for the programme, Ms Leslie Ann Hayden who is with us today, helped by an advisory group, a panel of assessors and the oversight of the Heritage Council itself. The annual running costs are in the region of €115,000 per annum. This level of funding has been maintained by the council despite the financial crisis in 2008 and the knock on effects on our annual budget. The council has invested in the region of €1,265,000 into this programme since 2008.

There are constraints. The ability to recruit more participants is limited by the small budgetary resources of the council and the programme is at capacity. Additional funding would allow the council to cope with a higher number of participants. For example, an additional person to work alongside the programme co-ordinator would facilitate a public call for new entrants and would potentially allow the doubling of the annual intake of new institutions, which currently stands at only two per annum. The post of museums and archives officer at the council has been vacant for more than six years. This vacancy also limits our capacity to provide a public service in this area. Should sanction be given for this post to be filled, a wider range of advisory services could be provided to local and regional museums in particular, including those which are not currently in the programme.

The programme has had a significant impact in strengthening museums, particularly local and regional museums and in improving visitor experiences. The council would like to extend the MSPI to more museums across the country, while also supporting institutions which are not yet in a position to do so. We require additional resources to do so.