Mr. Conor Falvey:

We are fortunate that there is an exceptional team of people involved in the local government system in supporting the delivery of these things on the ground. People such as Conor Nelligan in Cork have been doing exceptional work for a number of years. I have met Mr. Nelligan at events in Dublin and the scale, volume and depth of his knowledge and the support the council provides are immense. The system would not work without them.

We have engaged with the local government system on the Creative Ireland programme and established creative teams comprising arts officers, heritage officers, librarians, etc. We are getting constant feedback that different people are pulling at those teams for different things at the same time. It is a challenge to think of ways to better resource those teams to help them deliver all of the things they are being asked to. I would not like to leave the room today without adding my voice to the acknowledgement of the contribution that people in the local authorities make on the delivery of all these programmes because it is absolutely essential.