Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To take the last question first, I agree that investment in the arts, our culture and our heritage does a huge amount to improve deprived areas and, as the Deputy said, urban areas. That is a developing problem. The Arts Council strategy, Making Great Art Work, targets every sector of society. We have the Arts in Education Charter. We are working with the education sector to get young people involved in the arts at a very early age. When one gives the gift to a child of playing an instrument or to perform, one gives it to him or her for life. The Arts in Education Charter is something we want to build on. I agree that we need to look at that. As I said, the Arts Council is the main body that expends money to these different areas. It is something that we should look at. Arts spending should be even across the country. I am very keen on that. I get a lot of representations from rural counties that feel they do not get their fair share. It is very important that arts spending should be spread evenly.

The €6.15 million carryover mainly related to the permanent legacies, which were the capital commemoration projects.

Some of them did not spend as much money as they thought they would in 2015. It was carried over to continue and finish some of the projects. As the Deputy knows, we have had some very good projects that have been finished.

The Deputy mentioned the commemorations and the extra funding for them. I certainly want to hold the baseline figure. I would like the opening figure for next year to be the same as the closing figure for this year, as agreed. Anything I can do I will do and I will make the case for it. On investment in the arts, the commemorations have really allowed people to reconnect with the arts and their heritage and there have been huge benefits across the country. In every local authority area there have been commemorations and there is a plan for every county. That is why I will make the case based on the benefits of investing in the arts and argue that we need to hold on to this budget. I look forward to receiving the Deputy's support. The record speaks for itself this time: we invested extra money in the arts and it certainly paid off. There was great engagement across the country. We had young people performing plays related to the events of 1916.