Despite commitment by Dept of Arts to reduce IMMA board to 9 members Minister Humphreys is to put it back to 12

Board Member Numbers

The Public Appointment Service put out advertisement for applications for new Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) board members on 30/07/2015.

There are nine positions advertised, four current vacancies and five arising in January/February 2016.

According Memorandum of Articles and Association of the Irish Museum of Modern Art Company the number of directors is 15.


IMMA board timeline

Data Source

You can see how in 2012 it went from 15 to 9 until recently it then went back up to 11 for a week then back to ten. The IMMA board currently has 8 members.

but the previous Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan had already said they would reduce the number from 15 to 9.

31/10/12 - Deenihan outlines reform actions for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht organisations

National Gallery of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Crawford Art Gallery

The boards of the three institutions to be scaled back to a maximum of 9 members each, including the Chair (a reduction of the order of between 40 – 50 %).

and the board had been kept at 9 members for over 2 years but now despite having said that the board would be reduced to 9 it will be now set at 12, see incredible spin the department PR person,

Having emailed the Department of Arts and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to ask who was currently on the board and getting no reply for whole week, I had to depend on political correspondent for Today FM Gavan Reilly to get me that answer.

@lostexpectation pic.twitter.com/6XrWoFilk1

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) August 7, 2015

Arts Boards Reduction Committments

National Gallery of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Crawford Art Gallery: Summary of Reform Proposals 31.10.12

The boards of the three institutions to be retained, but scaled back to a maximum of 9 members each, including the Chair.

31/10/12 - Deenihan outlines reform actions for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht organisations

Some of the reform actions now being progressed include:

National Gallery of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Crawford Art Gallery

• The boards of the three institutions to be scaled back to a maximum of 9 members each, including the Chair

Governance of Cultural Institutions 26 March 2013

Speech by Minister Jimmy Deenihan
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

To ensure that appointments by the Minister of the day to these boards will have regard to an independent assessment process, based on a skills matrix to be drawn up by the Minister and managed through the Public Appointments Service;

To scale back the boards of the National Gallery of Ireland, IMMA and the Crawford Gallery to a maximum of 9 members each, including the Chair, all serving on a pro bono basis;

New Briefing for New Minister Briefing for Minister Heather Humphreys Summer 2014.

Contine to work on the implementation of the Government decision on reform of the NGI, IMMA and Crawford Gallery -Heads of Bill approved by Government and submitted to Oireachtas Commmittee

Heather Humphreys 2014-10-07

As part of the Government's plans for reform, it is intended to reduce the size of a number of boards under my remit on a permanent basis. Legislation is needed to give statutory effect to this change and it is expected that this legislation will be published in late 2015. Heads of Bills are currently with the relevant committee for consideration.

Report of the Joint Committee on the general scheme of the national cultural institutions (National Concert Hall) bill 2014

7.17 Head 17 – Board of the Hall

(2) All appointments by the Minister shall have regard to an independent assessment process, based on a published skills matrix to be drawn up by the Minister, and managed by the Public Appointments Service.

Heather Humphreys 2014-09-23

Legislation is required in order to reduce the number of members of the board, and this legislation is pending.

National Cultural Institutions (National Concert Hall) Bill 2014: Discussion

Mr. Niall Ó Donnchú: (assistant secretary)
Head 17(2) states that all appointments by the Minister shall have regard to an independent assessment process based on a published skills matrix to be drawn up by the Minister and managed by the Public Appointments Service.

Heather Humphreys 2015-01-14

Legislation has been prepared to give effect to these changes and to reduce the number on boards, provide for pro bono service and gender equality on each board.

Heather Humphreys 2014-10-08

The proposal also provides for a range of operational reform measures, including shared services, governance reform, reduced board sizes and enhanced processes for board appointments.

Heather Humphreys 2015-05-12

In addition, legislation is being prepared to update corporate governance in the Galleries, to reduce the numbers on their boards and provide for pro bono service and gender equality on each board.

Proposed Legislation
Legislation has been proposed by the government and the department to reform Cultural Institutions governance since atleast 2013 and most recently.

Government Legislative Programme Spring Summer 2015

SECTION B
Bills in respect of which heads have been agreed and texts are being drafted
Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
	Title of Bill	Purpose of Bill	Status of Bill
43	National Cultural Institutions (No. 1) Bill	To revise and update the governance arrangements in regard to the National Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Crawford Art Gallery Cork, including shared services	Publication Expected - Late 2015

There is a National Cultural Institutions bill in progress in the Dail but it only deals with the National Concernt Hall.

National Cultural Institutions (National Concert Hall) Bill 2015
National Cultural Institutions (National Concert Hall) Bill 2015 Enacted as 10/12/2015

Board of NCH
10. (1) The NCH shall have a Board consisting of a chairperson and 8 ordinary members
appointed by the Minister.
(2) (a) The chairperson and ordinary members of the Board shall be appointed by the
Minister, from among persons who, in the Minister’s opinion, have experience of,
and expertise in matters connected to music, dance, the arts, finance, business,
administration, marketing, fundraising, philanthropy, corporate governance,
human resources or venue management.
(b) When making an appointment under paragraph (a) the Minister shall consult the
chairperson of the Board in relation to the expertise that is required on the Board.
Board of NCH
10. (1) The NCH shall have a Board consisting of a chairperson and 8 ordinary members
appointed by the Minister.
(2) (a) The chairperson and ordinary members of the Board shall be appointed by the
Minister, from among persons who, in the Minister’s opinion, have experience of,
and expertise in matters connected to music, dance, the arts, finance, business,
administration, marketing, fundraising, philanthropy, corporate governance,
human resources or venue management.
(b) When making an appointment under paragraph (a) the Minister shall consult the
chairperson of the Board in relation to the expertise that is required on the Board.

Where did the published skill Matrix go?

Are the Public Appontment Service and the Dept of Arts following new state board appointment guidelines?

A year after Minister Heather Humphreys abused her public office for party gain and got away with it, and 9 months after the Minister for Public Reform brought in new state board appointment guidelines in response, which said that the Department/Minister must consult with and use the Public Appointment Service (PAS) to interview potential candidates, is the Minister giving full information to the PAS?

The Public Appointment Service put out advertisement for applications for new Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) board members on 30/07/2015.

I hasn't noticed that the 5 year term the Chair of the board of IMMA Eoin Mcgonigal appointed on the 09/07/2010 had expired on the 08/07/2015 until the beginning of July. I then noticed that the board members list was out of date by 9 months

The membership.stateboards.ie was out of date. This is how it looked on 02/08/2015.


IMMA board members from IMMA website (also out of date).

I emailed the contact address on the membership.stateboards.ie website asking them to update the list of IMMA board members on 02/08/15.

They replied that it was up to the Department of Public Reform and Expenditure to update the list. I replied,

surely if you are putting out ads for replacements and mix of skills you know who is on the IMMA board at the moment?

On August 6th I got this reply.

As stated below, the information on our site is drawn from a database maintained by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform which we do not have access to. The names we have of the current members of the IMMA board is identical to the information on the stateboards website save for Julie O'Neill.

but Eoin McGonigal was still listed on the stateboards website even though his term had already expired by the time the PAS put out the ad.

Guidelines that may have been breached.

Guidelines on Appointments to State Boards pusblished by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, November 2014.

Guidelines that may have been breached under Section 10. Development of a specification for board role, page 5.

10.1 Where a new appointment will be necessary Departments should formally initiate the appointments process at least six months before the term of the current member expires by engaging with PAS to develop a detailed and comprehensive draft specification of the proposed Board role.

Certainly breached this one as between 3 and 7 vacancies existed including the chair.

10.2 The specification provided to PAS must set out key requirements for the board role(s) including:-

• necessary skills, knowledge and expertise;
• breadth of experience and required sectoral / stakeholder expertise;
• other desirable qualifications;
• range of skills of existing Board members(s)
• diversity and other matters for considerations (e.g. geographical balance, international membership)
• personal attributes

How could they be following the guideline 10.2, if the PAS didn't know who was on the board?

10.4 This specification will follow a detailed template for all State Board roles to be developed by PAS which sets out a clear format for the detail and quality of information provided in respect of each Board role.

How could they be following the guideline 10.4, if the PAS didn't know who was on the board?

10.5 The draft specification provided by the Department to PAS must also reflect the outcome of consultation with the current Chair of the Board. In this context, the Chair should advise the Department of the needs of the board for new skills, competencies or experience in order to ensure that it can effectively perform its role drawing from, for example, the Chair’s annual review of the Board’s effectiveness

How could they be following the guideline 10.5, if the PAS didn't know who was on the board?

10.6 The final specification for the Board positions must be agreed by the relevant Department with PAS on the basis of PAS’s assessment of any changes necessary to ensure that the specification is adequate to encourage the submission of expressions of interest and to be clearly identify a list of candidates for consideration by the Minister for the Board role.

How could they be following the guideline 10.6, if the PAS didn't know who was on the board?

Or perhaps the person replying to me didn't check with the PAS employee that actually engaged with the Dept of Arts?

PAS IMMA board Advertisement details, doesn't denote that a chair is being appointed.

Appointments to the Board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art

There are nine positions advertised, four current vacancies and five arising in January/February 2016.

I was confused as I only counted 3 current vacanices if the board was to be kept on 11, if not reduced to 9.

Board Member Numbers
According Memorandum of Articles and Association of the
Irish Museum of Modern Art Company the number of directors is 15.



but the previous Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan had already said they would reduce the number from 15 to 9.

31/10/12 - Deenihan outlines reform actions for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht organisations

National Gallery of Ireland, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Crawford Art Gallery

The boards of the three institutions to be scaled back to a maximum of 9 members each, including the Chair (a reduction of the order of between 40 – 50 %).

IMMA board timeline


and the board had been kept at 9 members for over 2 years but now despite having said that the board would be reduced to 9 it will be now set at 12, see incredible spin the department PR person,

Having emailed the Department of Arts and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to ask was was currently on the board and getting no reply for whole week, I had to depend on political correspondent for Today FM Gavan Reilly to get me that answer.

@lostexpectation pic.twitter.com/6XrWoFilk1

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) August 7, 2015

Proposed Legislation
Legislation has been proposed by the government and the department to reform Cultural Institutions governance since atleast 2013 and most recently.

Government Legislative Programme Spring Summer 2015

SECTION B
Bills in respect of which heads have been agreed and texts are being drafted
Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
	Title of Bill	Purpose of Bill	Status of Bill
43	National Cultural Institutions (No. 1) Bill	To revise and update the governance arrangements in regard to the National Gallery, Irish Museum of Modern Art and Crawford Art Gallery Cork, including shared services	Publication Expected - Late 2015

Also clearly breached another guideline under Section 13. Appointment of Board Members,

13.5 It is expected that following the completion of the PAS process and the communication of the outcome of that process to the relevant Minister, that the appointment shall in normal circumstances be made in advance of the vacancy arising unless there are compelling reasons why this is not possible

Two board members terms including the chair had already expired by the time the PAS ads were published on the 30/07/2015.

The Stateboard website does have detailed quartely statistics on its front page, but what it doesn't tell you is whether it is meeting the timeline targets in guidelines 13.5 and 10.1. I combined Q1 and Q2 states here

The very board that causd her the trouble is incomplete and out of date Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA). Update finally fixed 9 months later.


State Board membership lists that have Date Appointed: None
Notice that the Department of Arts has the most board members who's date of appointment is missing then any other department, (8th August).