Mr. John Crumlish:

We thank the committee for the invite. We are very happy to be here. Mr. Fahy, our artistic director, and I will run through this quickly between us. The key point we would make at the start is that we are no longer just a festival. We also produce and tour work. We have also started First Thought Talks, which is our discussion platform. We see these as the three legs of the stool that make up the culture organisation that is the Galway International Arts Festival. The key statistics in respect of the festival for 2017 were that 210,000 people attended, that the festival had an economic impact of €29.5 million, and that there were more than 200 performances in 33 venues over 14 days in one town. Those are the key statistics. We want to tell the committee a bit about what we are and we will then move on to our recommendations. That is the first thing we are.