Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State to the committee. I am glad to say this Oireachtas joint committee has played a significant role in advocating the reform of nightlife and licensing laws in our towns and cities, well before the establishment of the night-time economy task force. The previous Oireachtas joint committee gave a platform to campaigners, councils, representatives of the Department of Justice and business people to platform this issue. I want to see this committee make a similar contribution because bars, clubs, music venues, concert venues, cultural institutions, etc., cannot and absolutely should not reopen their doors on the same terms as they closed, not least because this would be an incredibly important part of any stimulus package post pandemic but also because people are fed up with out-of-date licensing laws. All bodies and organisations that have come before us recently have called for reform in this area. Therefore, my question to the Minister, Deputy Martin, is this: when the Department announces a roadmap for the reopening of the economy, will nightclubs and music venues be included? They were excluded from previous roadmaps. Will the night-time economy task force report be published and publicly available? When will it be published? Will we see real changes, including later opening hours this year? Will the special exemption order system be scrapped before the industry reopens?

I have another question on perhaps a separate matter. The Creative Ireland programme was due to come to an end in 2022. It has made a significant contribution, not least to the creative schools element of the programme. It would be disappointing were it to come to an end. Has the Minister come to a view as to what its status will be post 2022?