Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, the Minister of State and their officials for the comprehensive and helpful report we have been given. The Minister, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan, set out the real challenge facing the Government in meeting the required level of public expenditure in the current climate. It is a particularly tall order. We realise how major that challenge is and commend the Minister and his Minister of State for the efforts they are making, at least, to some extent.

Important work is being done by the Arts Council and its allocation of something over €60 million is significant. This year's allocation is down by 4% compared with a figure of 3.2% last year.

One wonders, when we are told the climate is generally improving and that the cuts this year are to be less excessive than last year, why it is that we are seeing such a significant cut in the money being made available to the Arts Council. We know the Arts Council funds local arts centres across the country, and we know those centres are very effective at bringing art into the local community. What we do not know, and Minister may be in a position to address this, is the extent to which governance of those centres has been looked at by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht or, indeed, by the Arts Council.

The Minister and I have exchanged comments about, say, the Belltable in Limerick in recent times, following its closure. However, the closure of the Belltable, which was regarded as one of the more successful centres in the country, raises questions about the financial management systems that are in place in other arts centres. It is in everybody's interest that the systems and governance would be beyond question and that the financial management would be astute and effective in the current climate. The Minister might comment on that and he might also indicate how the Department works with the Arts Council to ensure there is an even distribution across the country, having regard to population and so on, of the moneys that are available.

With regard to the Irish Film Board and the work being done in that area, I salute the Minister for Finance for what he has done in extending the tax relief to 2020. In recent years there has been much harmful speculation as to whether the relief was going to be ended. This removes all of that and we have certainty in place until 2020. That is good for the audiovisual sector, which is highly productive. Is the Minister in a position to indicate what level of direct funding he is in a position to make available, and what funding he has made available in recent years, to production companies for the production of films in this country? Can he point to a film and tell us that the Irish State subvented it to the tune of, say, €1 million, €2 million or otherwise?