Mr. Seán Kirwan:

The Deputy is entirely correct to point out that there is a change in what is proposed from the existing legislative scheme where the National Museum, when it is referred to, will be referred to in terms of the director of the museum. By way of explanation, the existing National Monuments Acts are quite old and go back to 1930, and there have been several Acts since. Most of their provisions were enacted before the National Museum had been set up under the National Cultural Institutions Act 1997 as a body outside of the Civil Service with its own board. It was considered appropriate in the drafting the general scheme that we should reflect that in formally assigning powers. I mean that the museum will have those and formally assign those to the board. In the detailed drafting of that I would expect that there would be provision to deal with the point that the Deputy raised about the board being able to authorise the director to carry out certain functions on behalf of the board so that there would not be any lack of continuity. The director would have powers on an ongoing basis, or other authorised officers, to deal with the day-to-day implementation of the legislation.