Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman mentioned the increase in expenditure by my Department and asked whether I was hopeful that funding would double. He is correct that the Taoiseach made a commitment to double the funding in the seven years to 2025. Obviously, I believe he will honour that. I am in budget negotiations for this year. I am using my best endeavours in the context of a Brexit budget to get whatever I can for my Department. We will publish those details on 8 October so I am not in a position to comment in detail on any budgetary allocations pending that announcement. The background to making resources available for 2020 is a difficult one, as the Minister for Finance has outlined. I will continue to place emphasis on the core functions and services of the Department to maintain the momentum created across the arts and culture sphere by initiatives funded by my Department, which are consistent with the Taoiseach's commitment to double funding by 2025. In addition, I will emphasise the importance of conserving and managing our heritage as a support. We can talk about heritage later on along with the other areas in my Department. I am using my best endeavours to ensure that whatever I achieve for the Department will be in line with the Taoiseach's commitment to funding. That is all I can say at the moment.

I will speak in a moment about the Cork event centre. If I omit any issue, the Chairman should remind me of it. The Chairman mentioned the War of Independence commemorations. A number of different events will be held this year. There will be events marking the anniversary of the death of Terence MacSwiney; the execution of Kevin Barry; the burning of Cork; the passing of the Government of Ireland Act, which provided for the formal partition of our country; and Bloody Sunday, which will be commemorated with the GAA. There will also be an increased role for the local authorities. The reason I mentioned those events is that when one compares the War of Independence commemorations with the 1916 commemorations, there were a significant number of State-led ceremonial events in 2016 and there will not be as many State-led events this year. Funding is extremely important and is part of my budgetary negotiations. We want to ensure that people have the resources to commemorate the events I outlined and other events in line with the expert advisory group. Since 2016, there have not been as many significant State-led events. That must be borne in mind when we are talking about resources. Nevertheless, some of the commemorations I have outlined will need to be resourced. Again, local authorities need to have money at their disposal to commemorate certain events.

The development of the Cork event centre is very much in line with what the Government wants to achieve with regard to balanced regional development and sustainable urban development under Project Ireland 2040. It is a project led by Cork City Council, which has selected a development company to progress the project. This company has engaged an international events company - Live Nation - as the preferred operator. The Taoiseach recently indicated that a new simplified process is being put in place to ensure certainty regarding the levels of funding and the delivery mechanisms for the centre, which will provide a substantial addition to the cultural offering in Cork city and county when it is complete. Under new arrangements, the project is being transferred to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and discussions in that regard are under way. We have not finalised this but high-level discussions are under way. We are all very eager for the project to progress. The Government is committed to investing in the Cork event centre, which would be of great significance to Cork and the country. It is a 6,000-seat event centre that will offer a significant amount in terms of the arts in Cork. As this has been such a complex issue, we are of the view that the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is best placed to deal with infrastructure of that size. Since I became a Minister, we have had major discussions regarding the Cork event centre and I believe the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government will be able to deliver it soon as possible. I hope that is of assistance to the Chairman.