Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives, whose presentation I enjoyed. I am from Galway, which is often known as a city that promotes the arts. I hope the company might present in Galway some time, if it has not already done so. I was interested in the name of the theatre, Smashing Times. It is a great name and perhaps the witnesses might tell us the history of it. If one is smashing sectarianism or racism, which would be a good idea, it is very appropriate. Whether it is Galway, Sligo, Waterford or Dublin, theatre companies have very good names and often there is a message in the name of the company.

It is important that what the company is doing continues, particularly in schools, and its work with vulnerable people, those on the margins and those with disabilities. Given the way the school curriculum is structured, these issues do not get discussed. While I was a Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs for a year, I recall visiting many countries in Africa. Teenagers there were more inclined to act out issues in the classroom, such as violence and, in particular, domestic violence, and were not afraid to do so. Sometimes in our education system we are afraid to talk about these issues.

What the representatives are doing is great. I like particularly the music part of it, which is very important. One of the witnesses mentioned that the stage is a dangerous place. I hope it is not as bad as the Abbey Theatre was years ago, when there were riots. Nowadays we accept some of the things we may not like to hear off the stage, but it is good for our conscience and our experience to hear those. I think our committee would like to support what the representatives are doing. We have not had too many groups appearing before the committee from the arts area. It is usually some other committee that talks to people in the artistic and creative world. The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, which is a very good Department, deals with such issues. The European issue is important, as is the experience of people seeing live performances.

I was a teacher years ago, and I loved the idea of any group or individual visiting a school, whether musicians, a circus or a poet or playwright doing a reading. That was always very important and it does not happen frequently enough. I would explain that infrequency on the grounds that the curriculum is very crowded and places such an emphasis on examinations, points and results that we often forget the importance of standing and staring, as we say. I appreciate the opportunity to hear the witnesses' comments for that reason.