Ms Lynn Scarff:

The Deputy makes a very valid point. In terms of our education programme, we welcome 420,000 participants a year across all of our sites. That is a significant number and our visitors, who range over all ages, are people who are desperately interested in getting involved. That speaks to the idea that at primary level, one has that wonderful crossover of subjects by the nature of the classroom setting. That is difficult to employ further at second level because of the manner in which the constraints work. Museums are cultural spaces. I am not working in the Department of Education and Skills and can view the museum as a cultural space. As a museum, we have an opportunity to offer a non-formal learning space and a place of lifelong learning. Whether one had the opportunity to study history at leaving certificate level, one feels in awe when one walks into the museum in Kildare Street and sees the Prosperous Crozier, which just came into the museum. Those kinds of experiences are crucial. Funding and resourcing and reflecting on joined-up thinking is the opportunity that is there for us all.