Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Independent)
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44. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the steps he is taking to maximise the use of State exhibits and exhibitions currently held in storage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38414/13]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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The national cultural institutions under the aegis of my Department are, in the main, responsible for State exhibits and exhibitions. Whilst my Department provides funding to those institutions, the board of each institution is responsible for all operational matters, including the determination of exhibits and exhibitions, and I do not have a statutory function in relation to such matters.

The holdings of the National Cultural Institutions, in common with institutions internationally, is such that at any point in time only some of its collections can be on public display. In that context, I am pleased to note, in attention to the quality of the exhibition programme that many institutions visitor numbers grew in the current year.