Ms Catherine Heaney:

I thank the Senator for those questions. I will deal with the question on the legislation first. The legislation is probably around the same age as the Senator. Often it is useful to revisit our legislation every decade or so because it informs exactly what we do. The most recent legislation that founded the museum places a heavy emphasis on collections and our collections policy. That is what we do. It is our bread and butter in many ways. There is very little emphasis on and very few references to the public. One such provision is that the legislation requires us to make available objects for sale to the public. There is no real depth within our legislation in that respect. In many ways, our strategies and the strategies of many of the cultural institutions, as the Senator will be aware, are far more visionary and inclusive than the legislation requires us to be. When the board of the museum in its fullest numbers stepped down at the start of July we wrote to the Minister on a number of topics, one of which was the legislation. There is an outstanding invitation from this committee for us to write to it and that is one of the areas we hope to address in our correspondence. As Dr. White said, we need this kind of national vision and quite often that is set out in the legislation.

The Senator asked about making museums more accessible other than being part of the culture and fabric of our lives. While we had the Mother Summer Block Party at Collins Barracks, depending on the spaces, there are limitations. Obviously, there is a car park that limits our capacity to stretch between our Kildare Street building and the National Library. I raised that with the Ceann Comhairle previously when we gave permission for the Ceramics Room to be used for the Seanad a few years ago. As we come out of the pandemic it is almost wrong to go back to what was normal. This is an opportunity to recognise how people changed their lives, how we have changed and how we have socialised. So much has changed. This is the opportunity not to go back to the things that were not as nice prior to the pandemic and to celebrate the things that were nice. It is a good time to almost draw a line in the sand and to reconsider what is important to us and what is important that culture can support in ensuring we can have the things we liked about the lockdown such as being able to walk around our cities without too much interference. I bike around Dublin and I was biking around the city on Monday and I hated it. We have to use this time to see what can we do differently. I will pass over to Ms Scarff to deal with some of the remaining points the Senator raised in his questions.