Sweeping changes in the management of one of the State’s most popular tourist attractions in the southwest are likely to result in management of the building transferring to the group of trustees who have been involved with the property for almost 50 years.
Muckross House, where Queen Victoria stayed in 1861, receives about 100,000 visitors a year.
At the centre of the Killarney National Park, it is run by the Office of Public Works, with significant input from a group of trustees who oversee policy.
The voluntary trustees, drawn from the business and social community of Killarney, run a number of commercial operations including a cafe and craft shop and traditional folk farms at the attraction. Until his death recently, the last heir of the house, Billy Vincent, was an honorary trustee.
The house and 10,000 acres were handed over to the State in 1932 but remained closed until opened as a visitor attraction by the trustees in 1964.
A joint management operation with the OPW has been in place since then.
The new arrangements are likely to see the trustees take complete control of the management of the house, it has been confirmed. They will also oversee some €2 million State investment in the house and folk farms that accompany it.
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan, said discussions were taking place.
The old agreement between the trustees and the OPW had lapsed, the Minister said, and there was keen interest by the trustees – who have steered it towards becoming a world-class facility – to be more involved in the running of the visitor attraction.
“The trustees are seeking total independence and I have every confidence in them,” Mr Deenihan said.
However, nothing had been finalised as yet, he said.
No manager has been reappointed since the promotion of the manager at the house two years ago.