Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are returning here to Question No. 1, where I set out our opposition to this issue. How does the Minister respond to someone as eminent as Professor Diarmuid Ferriter describing as offensive the amalgamation of these organisations when he resigned from the board of the National Library and stating that he objected to the Minister treating them as quangos, or to Senator Fiach Mac Conghail, who described it as a tsunami of desecration that could potentially undermine the entire cultural structure of the nation?

The Minister rightly said in his earlier response that 3.6 million people come to this island to participate in cultural tourism and he talked about the success of the National Museum. Many of us stick to the old maxim that if a thing is not broken, do not fix it. If what we have is working, and the Minister has indicated that is the case, why does he want to interfere with it? If he is going to interfere with it, has he looked at the New Zealand and Canadian experience where the indications are amalgamations of this sort have cost millions?

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