Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McHugh for attending today. She had quite a journey so we appreciate it. Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to visit the Crawford Art Gallery but I hope to do so.

I am interested in hearing a little more about two points. Give that Ms McHugh is so new to her post, she may not know about the education and outreach initiatives that may be happening in the gallery. For me, arts education is very important. Having such a national cultural institution must be very important to the schools in the area, both primary and secondary. We have an arts and education charter. To have what is in the Crawford Art Gallery on the schools' doorstep must be very beneficial to them. For the junior certificate cycle, support studies is a very important part. With the new leaving certificate programme coming on stream, galleries become increasingly important. What relationships has the Crawford Art Gallery with local schools? Ms McHugh mentioned the ETB, which has a particularly close relationship. Perhaps she wants to disengage from that particular relationship.

Perhaps there is a desire to disengage from that particular relationship. However, the ETBs can be very useful in engaging young people in galleries. In my previous life, I was an art teacher and history of art is part of the leaving certificate curriculum. In my experience unless the art teacher takes the impetus to get young people to a gallery, it is difficult to get students to visit a gallery on their own. As such there are two strands to my question and they are on the arts in education initiatives the gallery runs and the Crawford's experience of engaging young people in the gallery.