Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 5: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if, in the public interest, he will seek and publish information from the Arts Council giving the full list of pictures jointly purchased by the Arts Council and CIE under the art partnership scheme; if he will further indicate and publish the names of such pictures from this collection which were subsequently given to the CIE group of hotels; the location of all of these items of art which constitute an important part of Ireland's cultural heritage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27235/06]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The Arts Council is a statutory body under my Department's aegis. It is the principal channel through which State support is directed to the arts. It is understood from the council that there are 143 works in the collection in question, which were jointly funded under the Arts Council's joint purchase scheme. These include works by Gerard Dillon, Patrick Collins, Louis le Brocquy and Basil Blackshaw. These were purchased primarily in the 1960s and 1970s, at a cost then to the council of £7,233. The total cost of these works at the time came to £14,466.71.

The Arts Council is aware of the issues arising from potential sale of these works and is in contact with CIE and the chief executive officer of the Great Southern Hotel Group in this regard.

In that context, I have asked the following questions of the Arts Council. What part of CIE's collection was passed on to the Great Southern Hotels and where are these now? Which parts of the collection were jointly purchased by the Arts Council and where are they now? Which paintings were or are now owned by CIE and where are they now? Which paintings in which the Arts Council has an interest were not offered to the State and where are they now?

The Arts Council has given my Department preliminary responses to these questions and I have asked that its efforts to establish the full facts of the matter be redoubled.

On my instructions, my Department also brought the matter to the attention of the chief executive officer of the Dublin Airport Authority in early June and asked for a full report on the matter. I understand that potential vendors are obliged to notify such intended sales to the State so that first option on such items may be exercised by the State collecting institutions. The Dublin Airport Authority has responded to my Department confirming that it will consult in full with it and the Arts Council before any decisions are taken. The DAA has also confirmed that it will comply fully with all State guidelines. I have also asked the aforementioned questions of the Dublin Airport Authority and await its full response.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

These works of art are part of our national heritage and belong, in effect, to the people. They should not be disposed of for short-term pecuniary gain and should be returned to the national collecting institutions and the OPW, who will retain them in public ownership for continued public viewing and enjoyment. The sale of these works is totally at variance with the original intent of the scheme, that being to provide a platform for Irish artists to display their works. It was never the intention of the scheme that the public bodies involved would seek to commercially exploit these works.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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I am grateful to the Minister for his reply. Will he indicate when he anticipates being in a position to publish the lists referred to? The full list of what was acquired by CIE under the purchase scheme at the end of the 1960s and 1970s is contained in the appendix to the excellent exhibition of CIE's own collection, Art on Wheels.

There is a problem. The reason the full list must be put in the public realm arises from the fact that these paintings are a crucial part of the cultural heritage. In the appendix, a painting by Jack Yeats entitled Something Happened in the Street, is listed as national loan exhibition 1945, returned in 1973 and Arts Council subsidy refunded. Where is that painting now?

My second question relates. Have any of the pictures that were 50% assisted been offered for sale, either in Ireland or outside the jurisdiction? With reference to the second part of his reply, who owns these pictures which are 50% assisted by the Arts Council and the other 50% paid for by a semi-State body, Irish Rail, which in turn disbursed them to the Great Southern Hotel Group? Are they not in the ownership of the State? Why could that ownership not be transferred to public galleries?

The scheme introduced in 1953 suggested the purpose of the scheme is to have them on display to the Irish public, to introduce Irish artists to the public, and so forth. The purposes of that scheme cannot possibly be met by a sale to private collections.

I refer to the list of the Great Southern Hotel collection, of which the paintings in the Arts Council assisted purchase scheme may only be part. Where are these paintings? I put it to the Minister that it is in the interest of pointing out to the Dublin Airport Authority that they are not its paintings to sell. For the Dublin Airport Authority to say the OPW would be given first option is saying to the Irish people that they will be given first option on purchasing half of that which they own themselves already.

The issue of public scrutiny which is involved is that if I and my colleagues had not raised this issue, would we have known where this heritage was? I am dissatisfied with the reply stated publicly that paintings were removed from the Great Southern Hotel for appraisal and storage and were not being prepared for auction. My information is not so, that people were asked to tender for appraisal, storage and preparation for sale.

This is an urgent matter. It is urgent that the full list is provided. We must be given the full list of those purchased by CIE to go into the CIE hotels. What happened those paintings that were on exhibition in the four hotels that were sold, in Kenmare, Mulrany, Sligo and Bundoran? Was the 50% returned to the Arts Council and will the files in that matter be made available to the public?

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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This matter was first brought to my attention by people working in the Parknasilla Great Southern Hotel. Subsequently I read that Deputy Higgins had also raised the matter. Following upon the discussion I had with some staff members in the Parknasilla Great Southern Hotel, I wrote to the chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority, advising him of the wonderful collection that was in the Parknasilla Great Southern Hotel. I stated to him that some of that art had been removed recently with a view to its possible sale on the market. I pointed out that there was a circular from the Department of Transport some years ago which specified that in the event of art valued at more than €10,000 being put on the market by a State entity, the State through either the OPW or the national collecting institutions, must be given first option on that art.

I also stated that I understood that receipt of this notification was acknowledged at the time by the commercial State companies, including the then Aer Rianta. I also pointed out that I understood that some of those paintings may be jointly owned by the Arts Council and that the paintings included some by Arthur Armstrong, Norah McGuinness, Daniel O'Neill, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and others. I asked what was the intention of the Dublin Airport Authority in respect of those paintings and whether it was the intention to put those paintings on the market and if so, what plans existed to give the national collecting institutions first option on what I regarded as these heritage works.

I received a reply from the Dublin Airport Authority, dated 16 June in which it was stated that some paintings had been removed by art specialists de Vere in order to have them properly valued, these being the precise words used. The reply also stated that as a natural matter of course the Dublin Airport Authority would comply fully with all relevant State guidelines and would consult the relevant Ministers and the Arts Council as necessary regarding the future of thepaintings.

Deputy Higgins and I have discussed this issue in which we both have a great interest. These works of art are part of our national heritage and belong to the people. They should not be disposed of for short-term pecuniary gain and they should be returned to the national collecting institutions and the OPW which will retain them in public ownership for continued public viewing and enjoyment. The sale of these works is completely at variance with the original intent of the scheme which was to provide a platform at that time for Irish artists to display their works. God knows they had little enough places to display their work or customers to which to sell them.

It was never the intention of the scheme that the public bodies involved should seek to exploit these works which are part of the heritage of this nation and which in truth and in justice are the property of the Irish nation. I have set in train an inquiry through the Arts Council and through the Dublin Airport Authority to ascertain which of these are jointly owned by the Arts Council and CIE as it then was, which of these have been disposed of and where they are located. These relevant questions have been put into the process which I hope will yield the necessary results. Like Deputy Higgins I am extremely sceptical that the list on the catalogue is exhaustive which is impossible to believe.

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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It is important that I thank the Minister for his very full reply. I am glad we share the concern about what should happen to these pictures. We should also consider those paintings of regional significance, such as those of Maurice McGonigle, for example, in the west of Ireland, and others that would be appropriate to Dublin. We should consider how best the purposes of the 1953 scheme might be achieved by the paintings being placed for public view. It is of interest that the Heritage Council has offered to be of assistance in this regard and we should use its expertise.

We should establish the provenance of the paintings involved, especially in light of the other implications which arise. That is another question which I am happy to have the Minister investigate, namely, regarding any paintings which may have been offered for sale within the jurisdiction or outside it. I gave the particularly worrying example of the last painting listed in the appendix, the Jack Yeats work, Something Happening in the Street. A remarkably similar painting was offered for sale in Christie's many years after it is noted here as being returned to the Arts Council in 1973. That was in the 1980s.

I am very happy with the Minister's reply and I suggest he use the resources of the Heritage Council. I put it to him that it is in all our interests that we bring the matter to as speedy a conclusion as possible. The Minister would agree.

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The Arts Council has engaged the visual arts specialist consultant, Oliver Dowling, to establish beyond reasonable doubt the location and provenance of works purchased under the joint purchase scheme with a view to providing conclusive answers to the questions outlined earlier.

The Arts Council does not have a conclusive list of works from CIE's collection that were passed on to the Great Southern Hotel group. I sincerely hope this will be addressed in the context of the current project. The list provided by the Arts Council to the Department is the outcome of research into the CIE collection, which was undertaken by Jane Eckett in 2006 and based on the Arts Council's record of the scheme.

It represents the complete body of works purchased through the joint purchase scheme by either CIE or the Great Southern Hotel group. They are listed as a single collection and the Arts Council is establishing the distinction between works published by the Great Southern Hotels and those purchased by CIE.

On its part, the Great Southern Hotel group has transferred a number of works to de Vere-Whyte's for safe keeping. Some 54 works have been transferred in total, of which approximately 30 are from the original CIE collections. Inaccuracy in various painting titles leads to some confusion. For example, de Vere-Whyte's list Anne Yeats's Eggs in a Basket and this might correspond with what is on the Arts Council record as Anne Yeats's Eggs in a Hat. One man's hat is another man's basket.

The Arts Council, in co-operation with the Great Southern Hotel group, is establishing the provenance and location of the remaining works. The current research will establish if, and to what extent, works were sold on. However, the organisations and agencies that purchased works under the joint purchase scheme were not contractually obliged to offer works for sale to the State.