Mr. Conor Falvey:

Under the national development plan, we have a proposal with Dublin City Council looking at identifying a sum of money. That issue has come back strongly in feedback generally. It came back in our Culture Ireland engagement with the art sector at the end of January as well. There are fewer marginal spaces that artists can move into because of development and the growing economy. It is more difficult now. Dublin is probably the area where the issue is most acute. It is worth seeing what we can do in the first instance in the city.

More generally on the national cultural institutions, through the Government capital and current funding is available, and the two are not always interchangeable. The Department made a bid under the national development plan to maximise resources. The outcome was a substantial programme for the national cultural institutions. Historically, there has perhaps been some under-investment in the national cultural institutions. There is a demand, as the Secretary General has identified. In the National Library, for example, there has been a risk associated with the storage of the collection of books in the west wing, which has been well known for some time. That has now been addressed by the development of the new storage in the old National College of Art and Design building adjacent to Leinster House. In the coming weeks, as those materials migrate, the risk will be mitigated significantly. There are other issues relating to everything from access for people with disabilities to the Natural History Museum to issues at the National Concert Hall in respect of the operation of that building that require to be addressed. I would not like to characterise one as being necessarily at odds with the other.