Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 21 November 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 15 - Staff Appointments in the National Gallery of Ireland
Vote 34 - National Gallery of Ireland

11:55 am

Mr. Sean Rainbird:

I wish to comment on that and reinforce the point made by chairperson of the gallery, namely, that we are obviously talking about a previous director. As the chairperson said, I would imagine Mr. Gerry D'Arcy had conversations with senior management at the time and with the director.

We would today. We would approach those questions perhaps somewhat differently after the intervening ten years. The way of dealing with internal audit and internal risks has shifted and governance has changed as traditions and legislation around compliance have also advanced. We approach those questions somewhat differently. I reinforce what Gerry D’Arcy, as head of administration and finance, has said: this is really a management issue. We would expect to report regular progress to the board but the board is not involved in the day-to-day running of the institution. The board has a separate governance function.