Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Has the Minister undertaken an assessment of what is needed in the various institutions? The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has experienced greater cuts than any other Department. It has had to contend with cuts of approximately 40%. We know from the breakdown the Minister has given us that money has been provided for very basic aspects of the Department's activity. Major institutions like the National Museum and the National Library have expressed concern about their ability to keep their doors open. While it is welcome that an additional sum of money was allocated this year, it is fairly small in the context of the number of outlets we are talking about here. Some of it relates to the commemorative programme as well. It is a one-off kind of thing. Has an assessment of the protection of the national collections been done? What is the minimum that would be needed for the cultural institutions to function properly? We know that there are 70,000 uncatalogued boxes of records in the National Archives and that just 1% of the collections in the National Library are conserved to international standards. Given that the literary background in this country would be the envy of many other countries, it is absolutely essential for these collections to be protected. Has the Minister done an assessment of the minimum that should be done to reverse what has been done and put these institutions onto the kind of platform they should be on? If not, does she intend to do so?

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