COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, November 12, 2007

MOTION NO. 6

MOTION: Councillor E. Maloney

That this Council calls for funds to be allocated in the forthcoming estimates for a feasibility study for the establishment of a County Museum and that this Council supports the establishment of a County Museum.

REPLY:

The provision of a county museum was raised on previous occasions and the issue of funding and resources was considered. There was not at that time, and there is no current provision in the council’s finances for the building and running of a county museum. It was identified at that time that in order to be sustainable a museum needed

a) to be capable of attracting sufficient visitor numbers and

b) have in its possession an extensive core seed collection with which to start up a museum.

It is considered that there is an insufficient supply of seed collection to start a county museum.

Some time ago the concept of the provision of a children’s museum was also mooted and in the course of the review of the County Development Plan an objective as follows was included in the CDP, passed unanimously by the council at the time:
“That the provision of a Children’s Museum in South Dublin County Council area be included in the Specific Objectives of the Written Statement as agreed by this Council.

Towards 2016 – The Life Cycle Approach, provides that every child should have access to quality play, sport, recreational and culture activities to enrich their experience of childhood and the executive of SDCC is actively engaged in establishing ways of developing new, improved and more effective services and activities for children. To this end the Office of the Minister for Children has designated South Dublin, along with three other sites nationwide, as a pilot area for a multi-agency Children’s Services Committee.

It is proposed to continue our efforts to progress the objective contained in the current County Development Plan and the manager expects to be in a position to provide further update on the possible provision of a Children’s Museum in the South Dublin area in the very near future, including the possibility of securingfunding towards this project. This matterwill be consideredin the context ofBudget 2008