Mr. Pádraig Naughton:

Specifically, it is worth noting Deputy Seán Canney's point about the yearly funding cycle. In 2017 the Arts Council introduced a new strategic funding scheme. Arts and Disability Ireland was lucky enough to be one of eight organisations selected for that multi-annual funding. This means that we got our funding, like everybody else, in December 2017, for January-December 2018. From September 2018, however, we will know what our funding is for 2019. While it is a modest step forward, and the number of organisations involved is small - it is just eight of all the client organisations - it is something this committee can explore a bit more with the Arts Council and perhaps encourage it to roll the model out to more organisations in the future.