Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Tania Banotti as the new director of Creative Ireland. I have known her work for the past 20 or 25 years and congratulate her on getting this job, and I congratulate both Departments for being perceptive enough to give it to her. She will play a very distinctive role and make a distinguished career and contribution to the arts in other forms of creativity and imaginative development.

One thing the Department of Education and Skills might consider is giving 25 points to music or visual arts in the leaving certificate, similar to what is done for mathematics, whether that is pass or fail. We pass failure in mathematics now and think that is a great idea because we were told that by banks and universities. On visual arts and music, which is the core of much of what is being done, if the Department of Education and Skills made a case to give 25 points for those passions, would that help in the development of creativity within schools, whether primary or secondary? A link runs right from the time a child is in middle school onwards. I would like an answer to that.

I return to the issue of a new Arts Council. This is where we get bogged down. I like the idea of lubricant but it reminds me of Vaseline. I ask that the witness goes back to what is meant. This is where we are getting caught. Where does the Arts Council begin and end? Where does the funding come in and where does Creative Ireland get it and where does its authority start and end? It is the same with the Department of Education and Skills. Is a job being done that was not being done by the Department or is it because there is so much else to do that it might have suffered a bit of slippage? Where does Creative Ireland begin and end in that context? When it is said Creative Ireland does not fund, it actually does because it is funding Mr. Philip Doherty, the Cavan playwright. Is that correct?