The storm created last week at the Irish Museum of Modern Art over the proposed appointment of Dr Brian Kennedy as director is nothing he hasn't experienced before.

Much of Dr Kennedy's current reign as director of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra has been characterised by one controversy after another, as well as a steady stream of not always gracious departures of gallery staff.

Such has been the exodus of personnel from Canberra under Dr Kennedy that no doubt more than a few chuckles were raised in Australian art circles in the last few days as news filtered through of the resignation of IMMA board members, Niall Crowley and Terry Prone, at the suggestion that he should take over at IMMA.

Personnel difficulties aside, Dr Kennedy's spell in the hot seat Down Under has been characterised by other difficulties, too. Debate over the merits of a $43 million plan to make changes to the NGA's building caused such a fuss that the former assistant director of the National Gallery of Ireland eventually backed down and shelved the plan in August of this year.

He dispatched the architects back to the drawing board when supporters of the building's original architect threatened legal action if the suggested change came about.

He ran into more trouble when he cancelled the controversial "Sensation" exhibition last year which featured a painting of the Madonna partly done with elephant dung.

Dr Kennedy was hauled before a Senate committee to explain, among other things, why the exhibition had been cancelled. One Australian Labour senator accused him of withdrawing the exhibition because he feared attacks from right-wing groups.

There have been skirmishes closer to home, too. Last year, when he believed negotiations to bring the Book of Kells to Australia had stalled, he wrote to Bertie Ahern warning of "serious consequences" if the loan was not secured, and also criticised aspects of Ireland's arts policy. He later wrote a letter of apology to the Government.

The embarrassing episode was revealed when the Sydney Morning Herald got hold of the letters under the Freedom of Information Act. At the same time, the paper also uncovered that Dr Kennedy tried to facilitate a visit to Trinity College by Sydney's Catholic Archbishop, Rev Dr George Pell, who is well known in Australia for his homophobia. He has refused communion to gays and is on record as saying he believes gays can be "cured".

In April a team of investigative journalists at The Australian newspaper turned their attentions to Dr Kennedy and his impact on the NGA. Undoubtedly the most damning aspect of the investigation dealt with deep-rooted staff unrest.

"You're seen as not a team player if you question anything," one senior member of staff told the paper. "You just have to sit tight and say nothing; if you do, you get your head chopped off," said another.

"It's all reactive rather than active - you can't plan anything, just react to crises," said a third. Others, however, could not have spoken more highly of his abilities. But the paper reported that at least 11 senior managers had left the gallery in the previous 18 months, not to mention a host of more junior people.

All that said, he has in many respects proven himself a more than capable leader at Australia's most significant cultural institution.

He has bought expensive, well-known works that many argue give the museum a certain gravitas it lacked before. He has improved wheelchair access and even introduced Braille versions of key paintings to help guide the blind. The admission fee has been dropped.

Visitors have voted with their feet, with some of the exhibitions staged in recent years the museum's most successful ever.

Before he became director, the gallery needed federal government approval for all purchases worth more than $450,000.

He convinced the federal government to lift the limit to $10 million, and has had no hesitation in spending the public's money on snapping up expensive works that have grabbed headlines in Australia.

Works by David Hockney, John Olsen, Luca Giordano and the 500-year-old Triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints, not to mention Lucien Freud's $7.5 million After CΘzanne, have all been added to the NGA's collection under Dr Kennedy.

But some of those who worked with him are still less than convinced.

"There is chaos; there is no planning," a staff member told The Australian. "(It's) havoc, what can you say?"

For his part, Dr Kennedy seems unfazed.

"I could spend all my life trying to solve every single problem here, and fail to buy a single decent work. What I should be doing really is . . . leave some sort of legacy of engagement with important works of art."