Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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11. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the engagement he has had with museums, universities, institutes, and archives in other countries regarding the restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage; his engagement with the advisory committee on the restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage; whether a national strategy is in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35815/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I want to briefly refer to the criminal actions that happened overnight where Israel kidnapped Irish citizens and other humanitarian personnel and illegally seized 14 vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Government must now implement serious sanctions against Israel. There can be no more impunity. Colleagues of ours in this House and in the other House have been kidnapped in international waters. I just wanted to say that.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Deputy has only five seconds.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Very briefly, my question relates to the restitution and reparation of cultural heritage, the work of the advisory committee and whether a national strategy is in place.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The issue of repatriation and restitution is an important one, especially in the current global context. While my Department is not engaged directly with institutions in other countries regarding the restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage, it is represented on the advisory committee on the restitution and repatriation of cultural heritage. This committee was established to advise the Government on issues relating to the restitution of historically and culturally sensitive objects in Ireland.

The advisory committee is chaired by Sir Donnell Deeny, an expert in this field of work, and is ably supported by the Heritage Council, as secretariat. The committee comprises a number of independent experts, including representatives from the national cultural institutions, key Departments, the Heritage Council, as well as the wider museum, claimant and academic sectors. Further information about the membership of the advisory committee can be found on the Government's website as well as on the Heritage Council's website.

The advisory committee is tasked with developing policy advice and national guidelines on the restitution of cultural heritage objects in Ireland that may have been illegally or unethically elicited or traded. This approach is grounded in the research and evidence of best practice internationally and the committee has been working hard on reviewing this research and conducting research within our own collecting institutions. Through its work, the advisory committee will also provide guidance on related matters, including provenance research, to cultural institutions and other bodies that have responsibility for managing historic collections.

Progress is well under way on this work. I received a very comprehensive report on the work of the committee from its chair earlier this year. I was greatly impressed at the detailed work programme being undertaken by the committee into this sensitive policy area and its progress across the various programme strands. I also recently met with the director of the Heritage Council, Virginia Teehan, on these matters to assure the committee of my support for its work. I take this opportunity to thank the members of the committee and the Heritage Council for their continued support in this. I look forward to the outcome of the process.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister will be aware that I have submitted some parliamentary questions on the work of this advisory committee. I am really keen to see the report. I do not know if the Minister has published it, or if he is willing to publish it or share it with Members. It is really important that we see the fruits of that work.

The minutes of meetings have been published but there does not seem to be any record of a meeting since February. Perhaps meetings have taken place and minutes have not been published. There is a lot of interest in this topic and in the repatriation and restitution of our cultural heritage that is held in museums and educational institutions in other countries. In many cases it was taken without the permission of the Irish State and the Irish people at times of war and oppression and often stored inadequately, not open for researchers from Ireland or any other country to access and certainly not available for the people of Ireland to enjoy, understand, interpret and hold as part of our intangible cultural heritage.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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That is a two-way street, because there may very well be items in Irish institutions, which is something that is also of concern to me, that predate the foundation of the State or may have found their way into State collections by way of benefactors. We have to be conscious of that as well. In my time, for instance, as Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, I was very keen to make sure that any of the public buildings under the State's care and managed by the Office of Public Works did not in any way have artistic representation or any sort of presentations that were connected directly to slavery or the trade in human beings. The OPW conducted a very comprehensive body of work at the time and it was able to conclude that none of the State's buildings were in any way involved or had an attachment in any way, for want of a better word, to the remembrance and celebration in some cases, warped and all as that may be, of the trade in human beings.

On the point Deputy McGuinness makes, it is a two-way street and we have to be conscious of what potentially is within our own stores as well. Obviously, the Heritage Council has a role in this and I will engage with it further.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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I agree with the Minister that it is a two-way street. In the case of any artefacts or items of cultural heritage held here that are vestiges of the colonial past of this country and its unhappy presence within the British Empire for far too long, they should of course be logged and dialogue should take place for those to be repatriated to their peoples.

I just want to give a very brief anecdote. Recently, a research group from Belfast was in Cambridge and when they visited the archives they were shocked to see the Irish collection in dusty shoeboxes. An astonishing number of Irish historical and cultural artefacts lay undisturbed. They had not been touched. They had never been looked at, but they were kept there. When one of the boxes was opened, an archivist there took out a wooden stick from Gougane Barra in west Cork and said it had obviously been used for counting sheep, such was the ignorance. Of course it was a bata scóir, the piece of wood that was tied around a child's neck when they went to school, on which it was recorded how often they spoke Irish. They were beaten in school and they could be beaten again when they went home. These are important artefacts that we should have in Ireland, our country, so our people can interpret them and access them rather than having them stored in dusty shoeboxes in archives in Cambridge University. I ask that that work take place and that the Minister publish the report and circulate it to Members. He might send me a copy.

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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In an Irish context, universities are independent entities. As a former Minister for further and higher education, I know they really take pride in their independence. I would encourage them to exercise their independence proportionately and to reflect on what they have in their archives and on display. Universities, including Irish ones, should ask themselves whether the items they have on display are in keeping with the process of repatriation. Ultimately, that will be a matter for the governing authorities of universities, in the same way the issue the Deputy raises is a matter for the governing authority or its equivalent in Cambridge University.

I am not sure if Deputy McGuinness is on the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, but I am a former member of it and it is a very good vehicle to get issues like this raised by him or one of the Deputy's party colleagues who is a member of that assembly. It might also form part of a topic of discussion because there may very well be items in Irish museums and universities that could find themselves being repatriated to somewhere in Wales, Scotland or England. As I say, it has to be a two-way street.