Expert committee tasked with advising the Government and preparing national guidelines on the restitution of cultural objects in Ireland that may have been illegally or unethically elicited or traded.
Expert committee tasked with advising the Government and preparing national guidelines on the restitution of cultural objects in Ireland that may have been illegally or unethically elicited or traded.
In June 2023, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin announced the establishment of a expert committee to advise Government on issues relating to the restitution and repatriation of culturally sensitive objects in Ireland. The Heritage Council, as the statutory body with responsibility to propose policies relating to heritage objects as well as responsibility for the Museum Standards Programme of Ireland, is serving as the oversight body for this advisory committee and provides the secretariat.
Since 2023, the committee has been researching international best practice within the field of provenance research, restitution and repatriation, as well as engaging with key stakeholders to assess the scope of relevant cultural heritage collections in Ireland. The objective of the committee was to provide policy advice and prepare national guidelines to support Irish cultural institutions in dealing with objects of unknown provenance in their collections.
This phase of work has now been complete and the full report, which was approved by cabinet, is available to read from here: Final Report of Restitution and Repatriation Advisory Committee 2026
The guidelines for claimants and collecting institutions in Ireland is available from here: ACRR Guidelines
Internationally, there have been a number of recent high profile cases in which artefacts have been returned by cultural institutions to their places of origin. While there is growing public awareness of these issues, until now, there have been no guidelines for cultural institutions in Ireland regarding how to deal with such objects. The new advisory committee will provide critical support to collection managers regarding professional standards in the management of cultural heritage.
The committee is chaired by the Rt. Hon. Sir Donnell Deeny, chairman of the U.K. government’s Spoliation Advisory Panel and member of the Court of Arbitration for Art in The Hague. Membership of the committee is drawn from the museum, archives and gallery sector, the civil service, and legal and ethical expertise, as well as representation from claimant communities.
As the minutes are adopted and agreed we will post them below.
As part of the work of the Committee, a national survey of cultural heritage collections was undertaken by The Heritage Council between February and March 2024, to provide understanding about the scope and scale of cultural heritage collections in Ireland. An electronic survey was designed to collect this data from museums, archives, libraries, galleries and other collecting agencies nationwide. The Committee also expanded the scope of the survey to historic house owners and religious organisations, due to the significant holdings of cultural heritage in private ownership.
The survey's findings will significantly inform the Committee's work but will also be of great interest and benefit to the cultural heritage sector. The document below is a summary of the headline findings from the survey. It also contains methodological information about how the data was collected.
The Heritage Council, on behalf of the Committee, wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generous participation of the institutions and organisations across Ireland, large and small, that gave their time and expertise to complete the survey.
Puffin Rock Habitats is an educational project between The Heritage Council and Cartoon Saloon to promote greater awareness and understanding of Ireland's nature and biodiversity amongst families with young children, through a touring exhibition, workshops and activity book.
The National Biodiversity Data Centre is a national organisation which collects and manages data on Ireland’s biodiversity in order to document our wildlife resource and to track how it is changing over time.
A collaboration between The Heritage Council and the Fulbright Commission that offers Irish Scholars and Professionals, working in the Cultural Heritage Sector, a fully funded opportunity to lecture or research at at higher education institutions or organisations in the United States.