THE NATIONAL GALLERY has given a commitment that an x-ray scanner worth over €120,000 – that has not been used since it was purchased eight years ago – will be up and running this year, according to the Arts Minister. 

Ministers were briefed at a cabinet meeting yesterday morning, following a report in the Sunday Independent last week, about the scanner that was bought by the gallery in Dublin, despite it not having room to house the machine.

Galleries may purchase x-ray machines to inspect art work in a non-destructive way, a statement from the National Gallery said. The device, costing €124,805, requires a room with lead-lined walls to shield against emitted x-rays when in operation.

A spokesperson confirmed to The Journal that the x-ray bulb, the main component for the use of the scanner, is currently being stored with the supplier.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Department of Culture and Arts told The Journal that the “difficulty” with the x-ray machine was in finding a space in the NGI premises that would be suitable for conversion into an x-ray room.

The spokesperson said that the gallery submitted a report on the matter to the Department in 2021 and advised of efforts that were then underway to resolve the issue.

At that time the focus remained on the possibility of finding a room where lead lining could be installed, but after further examination by the gallery’s current management team, it has recently decided to move to using an x-ray cabinet, the spokesperson said.

The purchase has been condemned by TDs across the political spectrum, with members of the opposition calling on government to investigate the latest case where a significant amount of public money has been seemingly wasted.

Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan yesterday announced the terms of a review into the organisational culture and governance of the Arts Council, which seek to address the cause of the waste of money, in hopes similar events do not take place again.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning, O’Donovan said that he found out about the scanner last week. 

“On the face of it, it seems to me that this was a case of really, really poor project management,” he said.

You wouldn’t buy a horse without having somewhere to stable it. But it seems that this was bought without really any knowledge within the gallery as to where they were going to put it, place it, or use it.

O’Donovan said that at the time, the gallery said the purchase was “fundamental” to its workings. But he said it was not acceptable that it had been sitting “literally on a pallet in a downstairs room” for the last eight years. 

“This was bought by a grant from the Department on the premise that it was absolutely critical for the conservation, protection and management of the State’s priceless act collection, which one would accept at face value.

“But eight years later, not even to have the lamp in Ireland or to have it switched on, doesn’t seem to me to have been so critical.” 

Department ‘not without question’

O’Donovan said that it was not a case of “piling the blame” on the National Gallery.

“My own Department is not without question here, and I’m not at all satisfied both in terms of the Arts Council issue and in terms of this issue,” he said.

“My Department gave a grant for this piece of equipment to the National Gallery, and it was the Comptroller and Auditor General that included it in a report that I brought to the cabinet yesterday.

“Which begs the question: where was the oversight from the intervening period? And why didn’t somebody ask the question, ‘what are we doing with that machine over in the gallery that haven’t been switched on yet’?”. 

O’Donovan said the National Gallery have assured him that they have now found a suitable location for the machine and “out of their own resources, they will be able to house this”.

“They’ve told me that it will be operable this year,” he said, adding: “Now we’ve bought it and it has to be used.”