Mr. John Crumlish:

The first question was from Deputy Smyth about whether there is duplication between Creative Ireland and the Arts Council. I do not think so. If one looks at the Arts Council's ten-year strategy and puts it side by side with the five pillar strategy of Creative Ireland, there is not much crossover. With regard to Creative Ireland, we support the aspiration to put culture at the centre of Irish life. We have to move from culture being an optional activity to being a right for everybody. A Government has to say that. It is key.

With regard to the question about Galway city and county, the Deputy has nailed it. It is a big challenge. We have a couple of challenges round that. Those bigger market towns in Galway county are struggling. People are leaving. It does not suit any of us for that to happen in our home county. The year 2020 is the biggest opportunity to address that. We can get outside the city. The atmosphere during 2020 will be very much "can do", and we will look to establish what we would call tent poles around different parts of the county that would allow us to address that.

With regard to volunteerism, we usually have more than 600 volunteers. Anything that decreases the bureaucracy would be well intentioned. Mr. Paul Fahy and I were both volunteers. That is how we came to be involved in the festival. On my first job, I was told to mind the gate for three hours. Nobody came through the gate but that was my first job.

With regard to the bureaucracy, if some application forms just asked us directly what they want to know as opposed to more than 30 questions asking what they think they want to know, we would gladly tell them, because most of us have the statistics to do that. If there were very direct questions, if we knew exactly what they wanted to know, we would have to find out about it and measure it, and we would be glad to do that. With regard to bureaucracy, if they asked what they really want to know, that would be a big plus.