Fr. Mark Patrick Hederman:

The impression I got from Deputy Smyth is that even if we doubled the amount of money that was being given to artists or whatever we want to call it, the question was how that would be filtered. The problem is that nearly every person in Ireland regards himself or herself as an artist. Everybody has a sheaf of poems or a novel he or she will write. That is a great thing about Ireland but it means one must decide whether everybody is going to get a coupon or an amount of money to develop that. How does one filter or distribute that money? If we are going to reform the Seanad, as we have been saying for a long time, there should always be appointments to the Seanad from Aosdána. The artists there should be in the Seanad as artists and therefore have a say in what is happening at Government level.

The first thing I would do if I had the opportunity is reform the leaving certificate examination-----