Fiach MacConghail (Independent)

There is a crisis in the way culture and our living heritage is administered by the Government. This is not about money but about the lack of vision and public consultation in the way our national cultural institutions are being treated in a profoundly secretive and cavalier way. I am concerned about this and I call on the Leader to invite the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, to the Seanad for an urgent debate on the Government's cultural policy.

As director of a national cultural institution, the Abbey Theatre, I am aware of cutting budgets, rationalising, sharing resources and, regrettably, letting staff go. All my colleagues in national cultural institutions are trying to achieve this, yet there is no public consultation. Thirteen organisations are under critical review or will be rationalised, amalgamated or abolished in 2012. That is a tsunami of desecration and potential undermining of the whole cultural infrastructure of our nation. The list of these institutions is as follows: the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Crawford Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Ireland, the National Archives, the Irish Manuscripts Commission, An Coimisinéir Teanga, the National Library, the National Museum, the Chester Beatty Library, the Placenames Commission, the Heritage Council and Culture Ireland. Three of these organisations - the National Museum of Ireland, the National Archives and Culture Ireland - have yet to advertise the vacant position of director.

I was appointed to the Seanad by An Taoiseach because of my work in this area. My colleagues cannot speak either because they are civil servants or are in the middle of the crisis. I come here to bear witness for them and to ask the House to invite the Minister to come to the House immediately - today - as a matter of urgency.