Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Dorgan will be happy to know that I consider myself very much a conduit of expertise here. One of the advantages of the committees is that they are where one hears the truth about what is happening. One will not hear it on the floor of the Seanad and one does not hear it much of the time from the Government because there is a certain way of thinking and it is difficult to get through that stew. It is even more difficult for an Independent Member.

I was interested in what Senator Higgins said about the environment, as it has a big part to play. I believe people have no expectation of beauty. They do not have it around them. They do not expect a tree to be on their street and architecture has gone kind of crazy. If any of the witnesses was the Minister for arts - I like the word "arts" in the sense that I think of it in a different way in terms of music, art, poetry, drama, literature and dance - what is the first radical thing they would do if they had that opportunity? It is magical thinking but, leaving aside and understanding the social welfare aspects and thinking of the artist first, not the building, as Garry Hynes said, because we preserve buildings before people, what radical thing might our four guests do or suggest if they were the Minister of an independent Department, which is the first place we should go?