Mr. Feargal Ó Coigligh:

I will speak on the wider picture. The focus is to try to get significant additional moneys into the sector. Earlier this year, the Department launched a €1.2 billion capital development plan for the sector over the next ten years. The Taoiseach, speaking at the launch, stated there is no point in building these buildings unless they become truly national institutions that are able to engage, and that is a big resourcing challenge ahead of us. We are starting that journey in terms of increasing the current allocations. The Arts Council got almost an additional €7 million this year. That is a significant additional boost. As the Senator rightly points out, Creative Ireland received an additional €1 million and is doing very good work in the schools, as we discussed with Mr. Moran and Ms Banotti.

On the Culture Ireland budget, it should be noted that last year there was a particular high-level campaign in Great Britain, the GB18 campaign. Tracing Culture Ireland expenditure back over the years, and it is lower than it was in 2008 no more than many other areas around government, it spikes in particular years. There was a particular Imagine Ireland campaign in America in 2011 where it got additional funding and then it dropped. In 2013, we had the Irish Presidency of the EU, Culture Ireland got a large budget and then it dropped. In 2016, the Ireland 2016 programme had a big international focus and Culture Ireland expenditure peaked and then dropped. Last year, we had a campaign in GB. In 2019, there is no specific campaign. In effect, Culture Ireland held on to all that extra €500,000 it got last year and an additional €100,000. That will begin the journey, in terms of the Culture Ireland part of the Global Ireland 2025 campaign. That is the context in which this must be seen.