Sir, – Fintan O'Toole ("Death by a thousand cuts – the terrible way we treat our national library and national museum", September 27th) has highlighted the pernicious impact of unprecedented fiscal retrenchment on many of Ireland's most important national museums.
A partial solution to this problem could surely be addressed by replicating admission charges levied by similar state-owned museums and galleries throughout most of Europe. With continued free access for students, pensioners, and the unemployed, the introduction of an annual “national museum rebate” for domiciled taxpayers should ensure that the bulk of this new charge falls on overseas visitors rather than Irish residents, and remains compatible with EU law.
While similar admission charges for Dublin tourists to that paid by Irish visitors in Paris, Berlin and Rome will not fully account for Government cutbacks, at the very least it should more than finance the National Library’s absent water sprinkler facility, as identified by Mr O’Toole. – Yours, etc,
MARK WILLIS,
Sanderstrasse, Berlin.
Sir, – Already depressed by Fintan O’Toole’s account of neglect of the National Library of Ireland and the other national cultural institutions in the Weekend Review, I turned to the Magazine in search of light relief and was shocked to see a photo, apparently taken in a library, showing a woman clad in high stiletto heels, balancing on twin stacks of books while dangling another book by its front cover (“Fashion – Fantasy meets finery”). Use of a cultural resource to boost a person’s profile in this manner can mean only one thing – this model is standing for the Seanad. – Yours, etc,
KEN HANNIGAN,
Dunganstown
Co Wicklow.