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QUESTIONS HAVE BEEN raised over a Presidential library for Mary Robinson in Ballina that could cost up to €8.5 million.
An RTÉ Prime Time report last night detailed concerns over the plans that will also see Robinson benefit from a tax break for donating her personal papers.
The Presidential library is to be located in Robinson’s family home which is currently owned by her brother Adrian Burke. It has not yet been purchased by Mayo County Council with the proposed purchase price set at €660,000.
The report outlined that the library could cost Mayo County Council €1.5 million and the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht €2 million.
The Victoria House Foundation, of which Robinson is a director, has so far raised about €1 million to help fund the project.
Total purchase and construction costs for the project have been put at €6.4 million.
Mayo County Council has pledged to “cover any unforeseen additional expenditure that may arise during the course of construction.”
Robinson was Ireland’s President for just under seven years and served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for five years. The documents she is donating to the library have been independently valued at €2.5 million.
Robinson and her family will benefit from tax breaks for the donation of the papers with Prime Time estimating that the tax breaks could cost the State up to €2 million.
RTÉ Prime Time / TwitterTonight @franmcnulty examines whether we need a State-funded library for Mary Robinson's papers. That's @RTEOne & @RTENewsNow at 9:35#rtept pic.twitter.com/3jTELUNf0V
— RTÉ Prime Time (@RTE_PrimeTime) October 27, 2016
It is the first time a former president has benefitted from a tax break from the donation of their papers. Historically, former presidents have donated their papers to a university or State institution.
Speaking on the programme last night, Sinn Féin TD Peadar Toibín said the decision to forgo the traditional route was a “surprise”.
“The founding of a Presidential library is the a first in Ireland, there is considerable surprise in the academic community that Mrs. Robinson did not donate her papers to Trinity College, where she is chancellor,” Toibín said.
I am very surprised that Mrs Robinson is breaking the tradition, if you like, of lodging records with a university library or a cultural institution. Which has been the practice up to now. I can’t see any good reason to do other than that.
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It’s easy spend other people’s money
Especially when you come from Mayo
Why is there such a Government fascination with Mary Robbinson I think she started the downward trend in wages and workers rights in this Country.
@mickmc:
Mary has lectured us for over 20 years on the merits of a fairer Ireland, now we are to spend an initial 8.5 million for a center not taking in running costs for the future. Most sicking is the tax dodge, a 2 million tax free clause, from a person who has a Trinity pension, Seannd pension, Presidential pension, this all shows up the hypocrisy of the elite in Ireland it is very much do as I say not do as I do.
@ktsiwot: so she is screwing us on a big pension and now she want it tax free
@ktsiwot: can someone explain why she and her papers are so precious?
can someone in the journo contact mayo co.co. and ask who is driving this and why?
Michael d. has shown the way as ever and donated some of his personal papers to the state at no cost, yes, no cost
@ryan3939:
I forgot he un pension.
@ciaran:
All other presidents papers are donated to a state or university, I believe it is her own sense of importance, there was a time were comments like these here would be met with shock or disbelief in the media from which she got a free ride for years,this creates a buble of self importance and detachment from reality in which people struggle and live their real lives.
@Seamus Brady: Never ending ,,past present politicians now presidents ,, endless bleeding of the state
@ Alan Scott.. pardon my ignorance but how did she manage that?
I think you need to correct your article, she’s donating nothing. She will get a couple of million in tax breaks and her brother is getting €650,000 for a decrepit house in Ballina which probably isn’t worth half that. She’s just another in the long line of Labour politicians out to milk the public for all she can. Mary find your own vanity project instead of enriching your family at the expense of us, the taxpayers. You get three pensions as it is but your greed knows no ends!
*fund
Well said, Paul.
@PaulJ: She is a member of the Trilateral Commission, she was always a bought and paid for shill and they need expensive monuments in their memory.
@Anton Friendo: she did not even have the manners to see out her term in office now she wants a shrine to herself? she has the pension 144k p/a and her eyes on the prize of tax free.
someone somewhere has to say stop
Apparently the council first approached her in 2008 with the idea and she wasn’t that keen.
It took a lot of convincing.
€2m in tax breaks and €600k for her brother seems to have convinced her though.
Strikes me as a rather profitable vanity project for the Robinson family.
It seems she’s got a lot in common with the other Robinson family up north.
I smell a large rat ! This stinks to high heaven !!
Someone enlighten me, what’s the benefit from this for the people of Ireland?
Very little especially it based in the back end of mayo.
@Random_paddy:
She used being president to get on the world stage. She even quit early when Kofi Annam came calling.
Swanning around the world at everyone elses expence, wanting to be the most important person in the room.
Not a nice person, a fake. Beware of anyone who continually smiles.
Go and live outside Ireland. She is not wanted or needed here. Send her rubbish with her.
@martin kilbane: I agree with you about the people who continually smile, like the Garda commissioner .
It’s like the celtic tiger never left.
Indeed Stephan, it never did leave for the inner gold-plated pensioned circle.
@Donal Killackey: they’re all Gougers, feasting on the money that’s confiscated from the Citizens
€6.4 million? €650,000 for that house! Someone is seriously taking the P. But why would anyone be surprised. We live in a country where taxpayers’ money is not respected. Ever. The the loudest leftie blowhards, (Mary, I’m looking at you) are the the biggest spenders of other people money and of course, the sky’s the limit on a presidential vanity project.
What do they estimate the visitor footfall will be for this cultural centre in Ballina? Has anyone done a business case? Could this project ever break even…maintenance, staff costs? If Mary Robinson does not want to donate her papers to Trinity, let her realise the ‘independent valuation’ of €2.5 million on the open market.
A quick search on Daft.ie will show you how much of a scam this is. €650,000 for that house is at least 3 times what should be paid for it.
Thats just criminal, when are “WE ALL ” going to say enough is enough? Ridiculous!
All the shelves must be gold plated and jewel encrusted for that absolutely ridiculous amount of money. What a joke.
Gift the house for god sake. It’s falling to bits anyway. 600k? Balloons in Mayo? Wtf is that about?This is a pure joke at the taxpayers expense.
It’s only a matter of time before we get Mary Robinson the musical
It’s hard to believe, someone with her wealth, and earlier Social commitment , would be so mean, to her fellow Citizens.It reenforces the belief” they are all only in it for THE MONEY”..how sad…ye are welcome to it., sponges.
Much wants more.
One would think she was doing us a favour.
Somebody needs to end this shit show now. The arrogance is palpable.
Smoked Salmon Socialist
Sweet Jesus these people have absolutely no shame.
Why do we need a ‘Presidential’ library exactly?
Between herself and McAleese they’re taking us for over €250k a year for their Presidential pension alone.. every year, for the rest of their lives.
And people argue that we should elect younger presidents, at those rates I think only those above 70 should be allowed to run.
Will there be a candle in the window .
They (The Co Counsil) are willing to fork out €600k for a house to store books and papers in it. Why not make it liveable, and put one of the homeless families in it.
Well as as Sir Humphry (Yes Minister) would say ” putting homeless people in a house instead of papers, it would be ends of civilisation as we know it” she must have done a LOT of writing!!!+
People in this country are so guilbe. How many years have people been fawning over this hack? Joke of a country!
Next up…the Pádraig Flynn interpretative centre in Castlebar
You’d need three houses for that.
@Daniel Patrick Carry:
You should be ashamed of yourself. You made me cry. With helpless laughter!
What is it about Mayo ! look at the shysters they have given us and not 1 good word could be said about any of them. Haughey / Robinson / Gilmore and Kenny there may be more please add as we go along.
@Tony Hartigan. Beverley Cooper Flynn, another disgraced politician and her dad who had the country in tears because life was tough maintaining is elaborate lifestyle as befitted his divine status.
@Tony Hartigan:
What about Pat Rabbitte, Emmet Stagg, Bernard Durkin, Michel Ring, and that idiot senator who didn’t get a ticket for the final? Oh the Mayo goalkeeper, next FG candidate.
@Tony Hartigan: I think you hit the nail on the head, there is an arrogance about Mayo crowd, they never achieve anything but think they are God`s gift, just look at the footballers.
@Patrick James Walsh: Mayo people know we are hated. Don’t care mate. Life is too short to hate.
Good old hickey playing I AM NOT A WELL MAN GAME
This whole thing stinks.
Well, seeing as she was passed over for the job of UN General Secretary she has to have something to feed her inflated sense of importance. Disgusting person.
Who needs criminals in Ireland when you have this carry on .. unaccountablity.. breeds greed & deceit
She will only get it..If she is allowed get away with it. She has some neck
Normally people donate their personal libraries to the state.
The deal here is that she gets a tax write off worth 2 million.
If this goes ahead she should be made give back her pensions. How much do these people think is enough?
Wonder will this story be covered including the cost by her friends in RTE and the Irish Times
This is the same “bleedin genius” who went to Africa and proclaimed “Ireland loves you Africa. I will keep a candle lighting for you in the Aras . Come to Ireland, you are all welcome”. Well, Mrs Robinson that worked out well for us, didn’t it? Obviously that candle is still lit, yeah? So, this is yet another one of your great ideas that you want to inflict on us?
Had great respect for you as President. However why are you milking Irish Society now. Did you not get enough money already. A donation is a donation. No more no less.
As public services have been told the money just isn’t there,and whoever valued the house should be sacked.
This bitch resigned the presidency of this state for a job in the U.N. so she can f off
She lives in another world our Mary does!
Trinity College is the place for Mary’s library, not in some overpriced unsellable pile owned by her brother, 160 miles from Dublin.
At least in Trinity her collection would be very secure and accessible to the folks with genuine interest in her backstory and valuable chattles.
Anything else is a complete waste of taxpayers hard earned, imho.
Come dance with the tax payer’s money .cime dance to the bank.
Greed greed and more greed. Has she not done OK from her time in the Aras even though she didn’t finish off her term. Gone off her big time .
Will probably end up costing Tax payer
€44 Million!
Ladies and Gentleman another moral compass of Irish society… disgraceful
The sooner this woman dissapears from the horizon the better, she did start the race to the bottom with wages ,and if she could take E Kenny with her it might be the only good thing she’d do for this country
Total Vanity project lost all respect for her when she bailed out her presidency early. Should be no tax break for emptying her spate room.
Ban na hEireann. Much wants more. Given the time of year that’s in it as they say “a shroud has no pockets”. You should be paying for the museum and be thankful that you did so well at home and abroad.
Who’d want to visit the M.R. Library in Mayo when it’s completed? Not me! It’s well-known that the Divine M.R. dislikes paying out of her own purse for services provided to her as Mary Kenny can attest. Ms Kenny once travelled with the Divine M.R. in a taxi on the way to Dublin Airport aeons ago and left Ms Kenny to pay the whole fare, let alone not saying thanks & goodbye to the unfortunate Ms Kenny! Such a deeply arrogant, self-centred & financially sparse woman is Our Divine M.R..
Watched Prime Time report. Sickening . Caucescu style vanity project. Stinks!
I really can’t see the value in this. Seems like an awful amount of money for return of relatively small value.
Whatever about the unusual decision not to donate her papers to TCD I really don’t see the need for a Presidential Library and certainly not one for just one president. I don’t doubt there is much useful scholarly information in them but surely they’d be more use to researchers if they were deposited in a Dublin, Cork or Galway University Library.
As for it being house in her family home – this seems like an unnecessary expense and unnecessarily beneficial to her family. A modern purpose built library with a Mary Robinson wing could be built for the town for the money mentioned here.
Utterly ridiculous. I am very surprised she supports this nonsense.
I could think of much better ways for that money to be spent in Ballina than this. If she pays for the whole lot herself then no complaints.
The arrogance of that female is a amazing . Her papers would serve a better purpose in a local toilet in Ballina !
Nice way to kick start Celtic Tiger 2.0 Cha-Ching! Cha-Ching!
If m Robinson wanted to make a donation to the state or a university she could. Most of these papers belong to the state anyway. This tax scam is a serious slap in the face for the people who believed she cared about anyone but herself and her family who don’t want to pay their taxes like plebs have to.
Is she donating the family home to the state .??:
@John Scott: No, it is planned that it will be bought for €600k
As we say in Cork…. she is yeah!
Maybe this is more of a precedent (no pun intended!) so Edna can have his own museum for the first FG T to”serve” consecutive terms – Mayo seems to have inherited a huge “L’Oreal” complex!
She was a fantastic, historically important president. Damn right she should get to leave a library or museum or some such legacy build. We should make a point of commemorating our leaders. For better or for worse.
Final opportunity to get her snout in the trough?!
Reminds me of the oft asked question “what did the Romans do for us”". Mary Robinson has never out Ireland first, witnessed spectacularly by her leaving the Arus to take up her well paid position with UN. Can anybody tell me how much she has received in pensions since she left us? Now she wants to come back and avoid tax. Give me a break.
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