29-05-2025
Minister objected to second term for Arts Council director amid fallout over botched IT project
The director of the
Arts Council
, Maureen Kennelly, wanted to stay in her role, but Minister for Arts
Patrick O'Donovan
'did not consent to a second term', she told the Oireachtas
Public Accounts Committee
on Thursday.
Ms Kennelly, who has been in the role since April 2020, is due to step down next month. She told the committee she wanted to continue her work as director, but Mr O'Donovan did not grant her a second five-year term.
She said she was 'very disappointed' that her contract had not been extended as she had 'great plans for the organisation' and the board 'fully supported' her.
'There were a number of reforms that I brought in, and there were a number of other reforms that I really wanted to see through. So it's a source of great disappointment that I won't be able to see those through,' she said.
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Ms Kennelly said she believed that all her 'predecessors in living memory' had been granted a second term. She said she was offered 'a short-term contract, which I deemed unacceptable'.
Asked if Mr O'Donovan did not grant Ms Kennelly a second term because of the IT project controversy, Feargal Ó Coigligh, secretary general at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, said: 'The minister sanctioned the contract that he deemed appropriate.'
About €6.7 million was spent by the arts organisation on a new IT system
that was eventually abandoned.
The PAC was told how the Arts Council is trying to recoup about €4 million lost through the botched IT project.
Committee members heard the organisation had started legal proceedings against two contractors and was in the 'pre-action stage' in relation to two others.
'We are vigorously pursuing our cases to reduce the loss to the taxpayer,' Ms Kennelly
told the committee
.
She said the council needed to modernise its IT systems and integrate five systems into one.
The council 'engaged external contractors to manage and deliver the work, as we did not have the internal resources to deliver this large-scale project', she said.
Ms Kennelly said, after some delays, 'multiple bugs were discovered' with the new system in 2022. She said every effort was made to 'rescue it', but ultimately this could not be done.
Mr Ó Coigligh said he was 'very annoyed' that so much public money was lost through the failed IT scheme, adding that it 'shouldn't have happened'.
'Mistakes were made, and we put up our hands that mistakes were made,' he said.
Mr Ó Coigligh said lessons have been learned to prevent such financial losses in the future. 'I'm putting in place changes to make sure it doesn't happen again,' he said.
The minister has established an expert advisory committee, led by Professor Niamh Brennan, to review the governance and organisational culture at the Arts Council, Mr Ó Coigligh said.
Representatives from the National Gallery also appeared before the committee on Thursday.
Caroline Campbell, director of the National Gallery, said she hoped that
a scanner bought for €125,000 and which lay idle for eight years
will be up and running before the end of this year.
She said she and her colleagues are 'very sorry for the length of time that it has taken to get the X-ray system up and running'.
'We anticipate that the system will be operational by the end of 2025, at no additional expense to the Exchequer,' Ms Campbell said.
She said there were several reasons for the delay including 'pressures on the use of our building, unanticipated operational issues following the reopening of the gallery's historic wings in 2017, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and changes of key senior personnel during this period'.
