Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for coming before the committee and for the remarkable work they do in nurturing and enriching communities throughout the country in their artistic endeavours. It is mind-boggling what they achieve with very limited resources. I thank them for that. This is an area about which I am very passionate. My wife and I ran an 80-seat theatre for five years until those beautiful people that supposedly back brave decided to pull the financial rug from under us.

There are many strands to the discussion today, all of which could lead us to a far better funded sector with a far more sustainable future. I want to pull together a few of the strands. I agree with Mr. Croffy - and it is great to see the lights shining on Ballinasloe - that we need to look at two separate funding strands. One should fund the actual endeavour and local activity, be it amateur drama, musical theatre or songwriters trying to make their way in the early stages of developing a career. The other should fund the places where they will perform. Have any of the witnesses put thought into replicating the sports capital scheme to develop an arts capital scheme? To be frank, it would not take a lot of work in terms of the structures and administrative structures. There is as much merit to be gained from the arts.

Mr. Croffy referred to the extraordinary successes of the sports capital scheme in supporting urban and rural communities throughout the country to develop world-class facilities. Within a ten-minute drive from my home, there are two Olympic standard 400 m running tracks, all because the sports capital mechanism is there. It leveraged an extraordinary amount of local endeavour. Sports capital funding is not only about the money; it is what it unlocks in the community in terms of its ambition. With little support an organisation can go to its community and say it has €150,000 in sports capital funding and it needs to raise another €100,000. This unlocks extraordinary community hard work, endeavour and commitment and it happens. Would the witnesses and the organisations they represent support the committee if we were to make a key recommendation in our report that there should be a national arts capital scheme very similar to the sports capital scheme? I believe we should do so. It would not take a lot of work to re-engineer how the sports capital scheme works and direct it towards the arts.

Back in 2019, the Arts Council received approximately €75 million a year. Now it receives €135 million a year. This is an extraordinary transformation. The basic income for artists is also wonderful. To be frank, the Minister, Deputy Martin, and her predecessor will go down as having done something powerful. They will have left an excellent legacy in terms of arts funding nationally. Every time we have increased funding for the Arts Council, I have asked where is the funding for our local communities. I think of the arts officer in Galway County Council and all of the wonderful things she would like to do but she has very limited resources available to her. Mr. Croffy has suggested, and perhaps he is right and I have no reason to question his wisdom and extraordinary experience, that we leave aside the Arts Council, and let it do what it is doing, and that we create a unique and new funding stream solely for artistic production and endeavour at local level. I believe this should also become a key recommendation of our report.

What are the perspectives of the witnesses on an arts capital scheme? We have seen the rural regeneration and development fund of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys. I might suggest - and I am not joking - that next year we hold a meeting of this committee in places such as the Ramor Theatre in Virginia, County Cavan. That would give us a sense of what is possible when a community comes together and works hand-in-glove with the State and the Government to develop something truly extraordinary. We need to see and feel this in order for us to be able to move forward and suggest similar outcomes from a national perspective. What should an arts capital scheme look like? Have the witnesses made any approaches to the Department or the Arts Council and, if so, what has been their response?

Are we in the very early stages of this? I honestly do not know.