National Gallery spends over €200,000 on severance deal with staff member

The National Gallery paid out more than €200,000 in a severance agreement, including legal costs, concerning one member of staff in 2022.

That is according to the recently signed off 2022 annual report for the National Gallery, which details how the unnamed member of staff received €141,125 in the severance settlement in 2022.

A note attached to the accounts states that in addition, legal costs of €61,158 “were also incurred in relation to concluding the termination agreement”.

The total cost to the National Gallery of the agreement was €202,283.

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No details are provided in the annual report around the circumstances of the departure of the staff member or if the settlement included a confidentiality clause.

A spokesman for the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media confirmed on Friday that in relation to the €141,125 payout that all steps were completed under a Government circular relating to severance payments.

In such cases, the parent department must refer such requests to the Department of Public Expenditure for consideration and approval.

The spokesman. said: “These steps were all completed in respect of the severance arrangement at the National Gallery of Ireland.”

A spokeswoman for the National Gallery said it had no comment to make.

However, the National Gallery may face further scrutiny concerning the payout from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy confirmed on Friday that she has written to the PAC requesting it to write to the National Gallery “for further clarity” on the payment.

In her letter, Ms Murphy has asked the PAC to determine from the National Gallery if a non-disclosure agreement had been entered into “and some background context that led to the payment”.

She is also seeking a breakdown of the legal costs connected to the case.

“The settlement payment of €141,125 may well be proportionate compensation for whatever the issue was but I find the legal bill attached to it quite significant on top of the payout,” she said.

The annual report shows that the National Gallery received €15.4 million in Oireachtas grant funding in 2022, a 12.6 per cent increase on 2021. The gallery recorded an operating surplus of €6.2 million after its costs came to €14.6 million.

The gallery welcomed 788, 000 visitors in 2022, a 3 per cent increase on pre-Covid 2019.

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