ENTRY fees could be introduced at all national museum sites in Wales due to “critical” financial pressures, a committee heard.

Dawn Bowden told the Senedd’s culture committee that ending free access to museums is under consideration as public bodies look to generate additional income.

The deputy minister for culture said the scale of budget constraints means the Welsh Government and arm’s-length bodies have to explore all options.

Ms Bowden stressed that equality would be a key consideration if charges are introduced – with certain people exempted from charges, for example.

She said: “It is not something that we would be considering or asking the museum to look at and to consider if it were not in a critical situation.

“The budget situation was such that this was an option that had to be on the table.

“Now, I'm not saying that that's where we will end up, but it would not be responsible of me to rule that out at this stage or to suggest to the museum they shouldn't be exploring that.”

Plaid Cymru’s Llŷr Gruffydd said there is an air of inevitability about entry charges.

The deputy minister pointed out that the extra capital allocation for the Welsh Government from the UK Chancellor’s autumn statement totalled £5.8 million.

She said: “You can see the level of challenge that that presents if we had to go anywhere near meeting the £9 million-a-year bill for the national museum.”

Mr Gruffydd also raised evidence from the National Library that trebling its capital budget would not be sufficient.

He questioned the Welsh Government’s long-term ambitions, characterising it as sticking plasters and responding to emergencies.

Ms Bowden responded: “It's doing the emergency work and prioritising the emergency work as best we can, yes.”

She stressed that capital budget allocations for arm’s-length bodies have been maintained but ministers have not been able to increase them.

Tom Giffard, the Conservatives’ shadow culture deputy minister, asked about the scale of potential redundancies in arm’s-length bodies.

Ms Bowden stressed that protecting jobs has been one of the key priorities guiding the Welsh Government when setting draft 2024-25 spending plans.

She said a culture strategy will be published within the next financial year.

The deputy minister said funding under the cooperation agreement with Plaid Cymru may be repurposed to safeguard as many jobs as possible.