Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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243. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the level of funds available to her through the Heritage Fund Act; the level of funds in the heritage fund; the amounts and benefactors of the fund in the past 24 months; her plans to develop the Fund, both in terms of its level and remit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38530/14]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Heritage Fund was established under the Heritage Fund Act 2001. The purpose of the fund is to provide resources for use by the principal State collecting cultural institutions in acquiring, for the national collections, items of moveable heritage such as artefacts, manuscripts, books and works of art that

- are both rare and of national importance,

-are outstanding examples of their type,

-are pre-eminent in their class, and

-otherwise could not be acquired.

The Act provided for a total fund of €12.697m over a five-year period, broken down between an allocation of €3,809,214 in the financial year 2001, €2,539,476 in each of the financial years 2002, 2003, 2004, and finally a sum of €1,269,738 in the financial year 2005. 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 €217,826.11 in funding. This amount is, however, below the amount laid down in the legislation for an individual acquisition, each of which must be valued above €317,435. As the existing legislation does not allow for the replenishment of the fund, the balance of the fund is currently in an interest-bearing account and cannot be used for acquisitions. Consequently, no acquisitions have been made using the fund since 2007. The matter is being kept under review.