Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 17: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the status of the heritage fund and plans to have it replenished; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31505/07]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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In the 1990s, the State's National Cultural Institutions, which are charged with enhancing and expanding the National Collections of cultural artefacts, had been experiencing increasing difficulties in acquiring privately owned artefacts, and collections of heritage importance, due to the high prices that such items were obtaining at sales and public auctions. In order to surmount these difficulties, the Heritage Fund Act, 2001 established the Heritage Fund with an overall limit of €12.697m over a five-year period. Funding for the Heritage Fund is held in the Heritage Fund Public Investment Account, an interest bearing account.

The five eligible institutions that may benefit from the Heritage Fund, are:

The National Archives,

The National Gallery of Ireland,

The National Library of Ireland,

The National Museum of Ireland, and

The Irish Museum of Modern Art.

The Heritage Fund remains in place and currently contains €203,725.59 in funding. This amount is below the amount laid down in the legislation for an individual acquisition and, as the existing legislation does not allow for the replenishment of the Fund, new primary legislation will be necessary to enable a new Heritage Fund to be established.

A review of the governance and operation of the Heritage Fund has been carried out for my Department. The findings of this review are being considered at present. While it would be inappropriate for me to comment on individual findings in the review, I can say that the review is very positive with regard to the Fund.

The Heritage Fund enables the relevant National Cultural Institutions to acquire heritage objects, which are outstanding examples of their type and pre-eminent in their class, and I am strongly in favour of the creation of a new Fund. As I have already mentioned, this will require new legislation. It will also require additional funding. I will be pursuing the renewal of the Fund in 2008.