Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the progress that has been made regarding the mergers and amalgamations of national cultural institutions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41775/12]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to today's Priority Question No. 1.

The Government announced a series of rationalisation measures in the public service reform plan, which was published on 17 November 2011. A number of the measures announced related to certain national cultural institutions, funded from my Department's Vote group, and these are currently being progressed, as required under the reform plan. These include combining the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Crawford Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Ireland, while retaining separate identities; merging the National Archives and the Irish Manuscripts Commission into the National Library, while maintaining separate identities; and examining the issue of shared services and the board structure of both the National Library and the National Museum.

As I mentioned in the context of the earlier priority question, the priorities set out in the programme for Government for the rationalisation of State agencies provide that such rationalisation must be cost effective and lead to a more transparent, accountable and efficient public service. The implications arising from the rationalisation process have been considered within my Department with a view to identifying savings, as well as opportunities for efficiencies and more effective service delivery. In this context, my Department has been engaged in ongoing consultations with each of the relevant institutions. In addition, I have met the chairs of the various institutions involved in this process to afford them an opportunity to express their views on the actions in the Government's public sector reform plan. Meetings have also taken place with a wide range of stakeholders and interested parties on these issues. In progressing matters, my Department has taken into consideration the various proposals put forward by the institutions and other interested parties. There has also been extensive debate in both Houses of the Oireachtas.

In July last, I forwarded a report to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform setting out the progress made to date, and the proposed way forward, in respect of the implementation of the Government decisions on the rationalisation of the relevant national cultural institutions. I am advised that the material submitted by me to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform is currently being assimilated and I anticipate that it will be submitted to Government for its consideration in due course.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I wish to remind Deputies that we have four minutes now and each supplementary question and reply is limited to a minute each.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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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?

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I was delighted Professor Ferriter did not resign from the Archives Commission because he has so much to offer and is a well respected historian. I have set up an expert group to look at the decade of commemorations and he has continued to work on that group and his services are very important. Senator Mac Conghail had a motion on this topic in the Seanad but I ask all these people to reserve judgment until they see the final result of the process.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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It will be too late then.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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The process was undertaken on the advice of Government; it was a Government direction outlined in the programme for Government.

The Department set up a reform unit and a reform committee and took the entire process very seriously. A vast amount of consultation was carried out by people who have been dealing with these national cultural institutions for the past 20 years in many cases and who know precisely what is going on within them. Consequently, I believe the result the Department comes up with will be in the best interest of the aforementioned cultural institutions and I have absolute confidence in the people who carried out this review. They have served with many Ministers, most of them from the Deputy's own party, over the past 20 years. I reiterate I have the highest confidence in and esteem for these people.