Unused €125,000 scanner the latest scandal under Department's remit

James Cox

The unused €125,000 scanner purchased by the National Gallery in Dublin is just the latest in a long list of pay scandals falling under the remit of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. 

Since the scandal emerged, Minister for the Arts Patrick O’Donovan has said is among issues that have caused “huge embarrassment” to his department in recent times.

The RTÉ pay and expenses scandal was the biggest one, and gripped national attention.

Onn June 22nd, 2023, RTÉ announced that between 2017 and 2022 it had paid €345,000 more than had been previously disclosed to the TV and radio presenter Ryan Tubridy.

This prompted a serious of Oireachtas hearings that had a record vieweship.

The director general of RTÉ Dee Forbes was asked to resign by RTÉ Board chairperson Siún Ní Raghallaigh. Ms Forbes initially refused to do so, and did not appear at the Oireachtas hearings, citing health issues.

However, she was suspended and eventually resigned on June 26th.

Further loose spending at the national broadcaster, which is partly funded by taxpayers' money, emerged, including €111,000 on trips to Japan and €260,000 on a Uefa Champions League trip.

The organisation is still in the process of cutting costs and implementing reform.

Along with RTÉ and the National Gallery, the Arts Council was also at the centre of recent controversy.

It recently emerged that a failed Arts Council computer project led to the loss of at least €5.3 million. 

Mr O'Donovan said the issues are a "source of huge embarrassment to the Department".

Speaking in the Dáil, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the scanner is the latest example of a Government culture of “waste and incompetence is deep-rooted and has been going on for a very long time”.

Ms McDonald said the “list of scandalous Government waste of public money is as long as your arm” but “not a single person has been held to account".

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris have said the responsibility lies with the National Gallery.

Arriving for Cabinet on Tuesday, Mr Martin said it was an “incomprehensible” issue, while Mr Harris said his reaction was “one of absolute fury”.

“It’s very difficult to explain that, why someone would embark upon the purchase of a scanner that they didn’t have a facility to locate it in,” Mr Martin said.

“It’s up to the agency to explain that.”

He praised the National Gallery as “a beautiful building” and a “prized” institution, but said it was “a difficult story to explain”.

He said: “I think it falls on the Gallery itself to explain what happened here and I believe it happened eight years ago so I believe the Minister (for Arts and Culture Patrick O’Donovan) will be bringing something to the Government today on that and I await to hear the details of it.”