Ms Tania Banotti:

Far from there being a bias against rural areas, the former Minister, Deputy Humphreys, prioritised the rural areas because every local authority gets the same amount of money. While €100,000 for Dublin City Council's programme would not mean very much, it would be significant for Cork county, especially spread through the Deputy's community.

Conor Nelligan, the heritage officer in Cork County Council, is the Creative Ireland co-ordinator in that area. We have brought with us the Cork county plan to show the committee. Mr. Nelligan drew up a creative and cultural plan for County Cork with consultation, including with the island communities. We are not hearing what the Deputy is hearing. In fact, we are hearing that because it is somebody local to that community who is responsible for dispersing that funding, people feel it is quite accessible. They are not applying to Creative Ireland headquarters. They are applying to Mr. Nelligan with whom they already deal. We can show the committee some of the county plans launched by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government a couple of weeks ago.