Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 226: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the additional cost of keeping the national cultural institutions open late at least twice a week to allow working people to visit the museums; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37583/09]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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A number of the national cultural institutions already provide patrons with later opening hours on selected evenings every week. The National Gallery remains open until 8.30 p.m. on Thursdays; the Crawford Art Gallery Cork remains open late on Thursdays (until 8 p.m.), whilst the National Library of Ireland remains open until 9 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This is in addition to the National Concert Hall, which is of course open in the evenings.

Based on information received from the Institutions, my Department estimates that extension of late opening hours to all of our national cultural institutions for two evenings each week would incur additional combined costs of in the region of €18,000 per week, which, over a year, would come to almost €1 million. The Deputy will appreciate that the provision of such additional funding to our national cultural institutions, in order to facilitate late opening on two evenings, would prove very difficult at the present time.

My Department, however, continues to liaise with our national cultural institutions, and encourages the provision of additional public access within current budgetary constraints. The recently held Culture Night, when all of our national cultural institutions remained open until late in the evening thereby encouraging people of all ages and from all backgrounds to experience a wide range of cultural activities, is a key example of the efforts being made to provide the public with access to our national collections to the greatest extent possible having regard to the current financial restraints under which we must all operate.

The Boards of the national cultural institutions are statutorily responsible for all operational matters in relation to the institutions.