Ms Aideen Howard:

I thank the Deputy. We have talked a lot about ecosystem and the interrelationship of all of these sectors. Mermaid Arts Centre is a good example of a venue with 242 seats which, when it when it reopens, will presumably have 15% of that capacity available to it. This is also a very useful example because as a locally-funded arts centre, it sits in the middle of that ecosystem that is fundamental to all of us here. Mermaid Arts Centre, for example, has a fine tradition of funded arts.

It also interacts with the commercial music sector consistently and successfully, and has done so with Bray Jazz Festival over the years. It is a brilliant example of how, fundamentally, the two-tiered approach of local authority funding, even if it does come from central government, and arts council funding can maximise the input and output for the citizen. The attendance at Mermaid Arts Centre, which might be 35,000 people a year, is something we will have to invest in and sustain. There are key points in all our presentations that could benefit from particular targeted attention but, equally, we need universal action. We have identified that local arts centres' infrastructure and the local authority budgets are major. I am keen to emphasise that that affects every person here and that investment in that area will be crucial.