Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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19. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the departmental scheme under which the decision was made to fund the Mary Robinson library. [37402/16]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Yesterday, we learned that the former President, Mary Robinson, is to withdraw her application for tax relief under section 1003 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, which was linked to the controversial proposal for a purpose-built library at her former family home in Ballina. It is a good development because it means there will be a saving to the State of some millions of euro. What was the Minister's role in making the decision on the go-ahead of that project? Under what programme or section in the Department was that decision made? What role did the Taoiseach have with regard to the decision?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department approved a grant to Mayo County Council in respect of the proposed Mary Robinson centre in Ballina under subhead A7 of my Department’s Vote, which supports cultural infrastructure and development.

It should be noted that my Department supports a range of capital projects in the cultural area, both scheme-based and once-off. For example, the permanent reminder projects, which were developed as part of the Ireland 2016 centenary programme, were all once-off projects promoted by a mixture of public entities, including Government Departments and offices, State agencies and local authorities.

5 o’clock

In the case referred to by the Deputy, my Department received a formal request for funding in July 2015 from the project promoters, Mayo County Council. This funding was provided in the normal way in the context of the 2016 Revised Estimates. In February 2016, my Department offered a capital grant in principle to Mayo County Council of up to €2 million towards the cost of construction of the proposed centre, subject to the standard conditions that apply to all such capital grants.

The board of the Victoria House Foundation issued a statement yesterday indicating that it is now to review the options for developing the proposed centre in Ballina following the decision to donate the Mary Robinson archive to NUI Galway. It was indicated that this review would be completed in the first quarter of 2017. My Department is liaising with Mayo County Council on the matter and I will consider any proposals which may emerge from the review, when completed.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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The people of Mayo, in particular, Ballina, are rightly proud of the legacy of Mrs. Mary Robinson for her work, as an iar-Sheanadóir, as a former President and as a former UN High Commissioner. It is important, if possible, that the Minister should work with the two organisations to ensure the archive has a facility for display in Ballina in Mayo, but it is also important that we protect the taxpayers' money.

I understand that the Minister accepted a guarantee of indefinite value from Mayo County Council with regard to the potential cost of this project. In other words, Mayo County Council stated that if there were unforeseen costs the Department would not accept, Mayo County Council would. This, in effect, is a blank cheque from a State organisation on a particular project. Did it not cause alarm to the Minister, given that she is also dealing with the Galway Picture Palace controversy where there is funding going into what looked to a certain extent like a black hole without the service being made available to the people of Galway as of yet?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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This project, as I said, is being developed by Mayo County Council. I met it in relation to the plans early last year when I was briefed on the project. My Department then got a formal request for funding towards the Mary Robinson centre from Mayo County Council in July of 2015, and the request was for €2.175 million. Funding of €2 million for the Mary Robinson centre was subsequently included in the 2016 Revised Estimates Volume, which was published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on 17 December 2015. We have approved the grant to the local authority but no funding has been drawn down. The grant offer is subject to the standard conditions that apply to all capital grants and these must be met before any funding is drawn down. All funding needed to bring the facility into public use must be in place and documented before a contract with a developer is signed and before any grant payments are made by my Department.

To clarify regarding the responsibilities of the spending, the onus to ensure compliance with The Public Spending Code, published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, falls in the first instance to the project promoter, which in this case is Mayo County Council. Under the provisions of The Public Spending Code, a cost-benefit analysis is required for projects with a total cost of €20 million or more. My Department will be satisfying itself that the project is in compliance with the relevant requirements of the code before any funding is released to Mayo County Council.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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It must strike the Minister as unusual that a State body, the county council, entered into an agreement with the Department on this project in which the local authority gave a commitment that it would cover the unforeseen costs that would arise, given that we have found out subsequently that the building in question has major structural problems and would have needed major investment for the project to have gone ahead. Perhaps the Minister would address that as I did ask it in the first part of the question.

The second issue is the role of the Taoiseach. Has the Taoiseach discussed this with the Minister? Did the Department of the Taoiseach discuss it with her? Did his Department discuss it with her Department? We understand that the imprimaturof the Taoiseach was fully behind this project before all those cost-benefit analyses were carried out.

Does it make sense for the materials which were created while a well-pensioned former public representative was in the employment of the State to be the subject of a tax relief in the future? Should the Taoiseach be able to apply for a tax relief in the future for an archive that he has produced? Is it not time to get rid of the tax relief for archives from public representatives?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To be clear, there is nothing unusual about this process. We work regularly with local authorities and we support local authorities in developing projects in their counties. In fact, I can give the Deputy a list of projects that were awarded grants under departmental schemes. Projects which were awarded grants in recent years include the Wexford Opera House, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the Fire Station Artists' Studios, the North Inner City Task Force, Athlone Little Theatre, Boston College Active Research Limited, Druid Theatre in Galway, the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the Gate Theatre, Other Voices and Na Píobairí Uilleann. Those are examples of other projects that requested funding.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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There were guarantees made on the project.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Taoiseach did not ask me to provide funding for this project but I was aware that he was supportive of the project because he made it known. Naturally, he spoke publicly about his support for the project. As a Deputy for Mayo, why would he not want to support a worthwhile project in his constituency?