Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Local government is now able to access funds that did not exist heretofore from the Minister, Deputy Humphrey's, Department in particular. They are taking funds from outside the normal strands of the arts sector but they are putting it back in. The Minister turned a 250-year old Church of Ireland church that had been dilapidated for 100 years into a library, which was opened during the summer. Tom French, a librarian in Meath works hand-in-hand with the Solstice Arts Centre in Navan.

Mr. Croffy is right that the high street has changed massively in terms of family businesses, but that is life. The Navan amateur drama festival, the Navan musical society festival and sports groups in town are tapping those branded places on the High Street because those boys want to buy community. That might sound like a crass thing to say, but they want in. They want that sense of what they cannot have through natural family interaction. The big guys are trying to buy it through community alliance with the existing community. At the end of the day, the groups are ending up with more money. I see the advertising brochures for these groups and they are bringing in way more money because they are tapping these guys because they know they have the money to spend, way more than the family guy ever did. The best of luck to them.