Cost of unused x-ray machine at National Gallery trebles, Dáil committee told

An unused x-ray machine at the National Gallery of Ireland is set to cost €346,000 to be made operational — nearly three times its initial cost — the Public Accounts Committee has heard.

An unused x-ray machine at the National Gallery of Ireland is set to cost €346,000 to be made operational — nearly three times its initial cost — the Public Accounts Committee has heard.

At a hearing on Thursday which focused heavily on the lack of procurement and IT expertise at both the Arts Council and the National Gallery of Ireland, it emerged the x-ray machine — first procured in 2017 — will finally become operational once installed in a bespoke lead-lined cabinet, which is currently under construction, at the end of this year at an additional cost of more than €222,000. The unplanned-for expenditure will be paid from the gallery’s own resources.

Coupled with the initial cost of the machine of €124,000, a final bill of at least €346,000 will have been incurred.

Addressing the committee, director of the gallery Dr Caroline Campbell repeatedly said she and the National Gallery of Ireland were “deeply sorry for any failures”, noting the institution had “not lived up to our high standards” but that nevertheless it had “committed” to making the x-ray machine operational.

She said the machine had gone unused after an initial lead-lined space touted to house it had instead been earmarked for another purpose, adding “since then, the gallery has been trying to find a space for it”.

The machine, which will be used to closely examine the gallery’s artworks in a non-invasive way, will now co-habit a part of the building in which other projects and processes take place, Dr Campbell said.

The fact the need for a cabinet had not been envisaged at the outset was described as “not great” by Fianna Fáil TD Séamus McGrath.

Art's Council's failed IT system

Meanwhile, the committee heard fresh details from the Arts Council about a €6.5m project to install a new all-encompassing IT system to cover the council’s various functions.

That project had initially been conceived in 2017, at a projected cost of €2.8m, though from the beginning it had been “built on extremely shaky foundations”, according to the council’s outgoing director Maureen Kennelly.

She said when work began on the project, evidence of “substandard work became clear quite early” in terms of a “huge turnover” of staff at the contractor.

Ms Kennelly said the necessary IT expertise required to monitor such a project was not present at the council, a situation that has since been rectified. She said two huge failings in the project were the lack of that expertise, coupled with “weaknesses” in the contract in that payments were not made based on milestones achieved, but instead in terms of the amount of time the contractor had spent working to deliver the system.

She said the project was eventually discontinued in November 2023 when it became clear it would take an additional four years, and a further €6.5m for a total cost of €13m to complete, a prospect which she described as “very unpalatable”.

The Arts Council is now to procure an ‘off-the-shelf' IT solution which will perform four of the five requirements of the discontinued project at a cost of €1.5m.