Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Vice Chairman. I would like the witnesses to comment on funding.

Earlier somebody mentioned the duplication of Garda vetting. The one thing, if nothing else, that we should take from the briefing made by the witnesses is that we take cognisance of the duplication of Garda vetting and resolve the matter. I know that when one has volunteers, but one can only afford to pay a few of them, that the duplication of Garda vetting is the most frustrating aspect. Sometimes one can correct the most simple of things that does not incur a cost but which makes life a bit better for everybody. The committee should resolve the vetting issue.

I would like to discuss the Galway International Arts Festival. As I hail from northern Galway, I wish to return to the point made by Senator Warfield about the amount of money spent in the city of Galway as opposed to the county and make the following observation. We need to spread the good feeling generated by the arts into the county. Unfortunately, Galway is a big county and the distance from Clifden to Ballinasloe is half the distance to Dublin yet one still has not left the county. Therefore, we need to take into account that there are great distances involved.

The county is home to a number of huge festivals such as Clifden Arts Festival. Unfortunately, the other festivals in the county suffer due to the great success enjoyed by the Galway Arts Festival. I mean that they do not get the same profile. Tuam had an arts festival for many years but, sadly, it died because it was effectively seen as being in competition with the Galway Arts Festival. The Tuam festival did not compete with the Galway Arts Festival but it was unsustainable due to being 30 km away from Galway. We must spread the success generated by the Galway Arts Festival into the region. We will have an opportunity to include the regions in the Galway Arts Festival in 2020. Sometimes areas in the region do not want to be included because they view the Galway Arts Festival as a city event. It is important to get people to come forward and promote the arts in the region. Much work is being done to promote the arts in the region but we need to prioritise such activity in order to get a better spread around the county.

As a former Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, I am delighted to hear that the Office of Public Works takes care of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. That fact is something that goes amiss. People are unaware that many State agencies ensure that facilities exist. I compliment the people who work in the Office of Public Works on their work. I will tell Commissioner John McMahon and Mr. Frank Shalvey that this is happening and that the initiative has been spoken about in a positive nature.

The Galway Arts Festival needs more space and we should take this opportunity to focus on doing something now. We have plenty of places, so it is question of making a decision. The local authorities and all of the stakeholders should prepare a good master plan in order to get this work done, which is well overdue. We can achieve that if we work together. I compliment everybody here on their work.

I wish the Galway hurling team good luck when they play Kilkenny next Sunday and I wish the Galway senior men's Gaelic football team good luck when they play Kerry the following Sunday.