Mr. Darach Ó Tuairisc:

I understand that and it is a by-product. Everybody in the room knows the legacy of teaching Irish in Ireland has not been great and there are some very negative connotations. I believe that still exists with Departments in the capital, and the Arts Council would be one of those Departments which would have a negative view towards the Irish language.

I am not certain if this is the case at the moment, but our experience was that one year, 2016, we did not get any funding. We found out that there was nobody on the panel who had Irish. Our application was translated into English and presented to the panel in English with none of the material that we put with that application translated. The panel was just given a breakdown.

Mr. Balance is 100% correct that the best piece of work should always go forward. There is a difference, however, between a Dublin-based company that is touring within the M50 and a company that is based in a Gaeltacht rural area, that has limited audiences, and that is trying to cover all of the west coast with all of the expense that goes along with that. I accept that but this should not be about giving the most money to the most people who can get the biggest audiences.