Mr. Padraic McIntyre:

The library came under the fund brought in by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphrey, namely, the rural regeneration and development fund. That has been brilliant. The library officially opened only a couple of weeks ago, but we got the theatre back open in June and the library is now working alongside it. That has increased the footfall through the door. We now have street presence on the main street in Virginia for our box office. People who visit the library see what is on in the theatre. People come to the theatre at night and realise the library is open. After a couple of months, the synergy of the two of them working together has already reaped rewards and we are only starting. We are beginning to see what we can do with the library and literature or music events working together. We have a rehearsal or multipurpose room underneath the library which we can share. All these things can happen. It is about the vision. My employers, the senior management of Cavan County Council, had the vision to see this could work. Reference was made to the usefulness of the libraries. It is working well for us. There is workshop space for individual artists in Townhall Cavan. We got studio spaces on the upper floor. We have three studios. There are artists working there all the time. Our problem is attracting people who are not from the area. As a result of housing prices, we do not have a place for artists to come to Cavan to live and do their work there. The studios themselves are working very well.