Almost four months since the opening of the National Museum's new premises at Collins Barracks on September 18th, 1997, the industrial dispute which led to a picket of the official opening by some of the Museum's staff still continues. The curators of the art and industry collections, which are housed at Collins Barracks, stopped work on finalising the presentation of the exhibits in mid-September and have not resumed this work since. The curators and assistants, who are members of the trade union, IMPACT, are expressing their frustration at the failure of the Department of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands to address their grievances.
At issue is the overall management structure of the museum, which the curators argue is in need of a radical overhaul, and some form of hierarchy. The organisational structure of the museum has not changed since 1928, despite the recommendations of two independent reports by international museum consultants, advocating additional staffing and restructuring, and a report by the Management Services Unit of the Department of Finance recommending the appointment of 97 additional staff members.
Negotiations have been in progress since December and a settlement of the dispute is now imminent, according to Michael Kenny, metal work specialist and chairman of the National Museum's branch of IMPACT. This is confirmed by the Department of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and Islands. "We are attempting to iron out our difficulties and some progress has been made," Michael Kenny says. "I'm very hopeful that peace will break out soon, but some of the issues relating to staff structures still need to be resolved."
"This is one of the most reluctant disputes of all time. The people who have suffered are the staff members themselves. As curators and scholars, we are not in the habit of going about with placards and refusing to co-operate - it took a fair amount of grievance to bring it to that stage. Nobody wishes more than we do for it to be resolved."
Since the opening day, there have not been any further pickets at Collins Barracks, although the IMPACT members have distributed leaflets among visitors and requested them to sign petitions. "We felt that we had made our point and won a lot of public support. We have not been discouraging people from entering. We just want the public to know that the exhibits are unfinished, and that what they are looking at could be so much better."
According to Noel Delaney, Head of Services at Collins Barracks, the numbers of visitors do not appear to have been significantly affected by the dispute, although market research will investigate this further. "From the opening in September until the end of 1997, a traditionally quiet period, there have been 55,000 visitors. Sunday is the most popular day, with an average of 2,000 people passing through, over three hours. I know that some people have been reluctant to visit the museum while a dispute is going on. These would be well-informed people with links to the media or the museum. The response from the general public has been really positive, both to the building and to the exhibits, and we have had no complaints. We hope, in 1998 to attract 300,000 people here."
