Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Dorgan for her time and for coming in today. I thank her colleagues for joining us online as well. I wish to acknowledge what a positive day yesterday was for the arts in Ireland. My thanks go to everyone involved, including the NCFA and their colleagues. My thanks go to the artists and people involved in the arts and workers throughout the country who have got involved at grassroots level with the campaign as well as the members of the committee and those working on this theme in the Department. It is a positive day. I know it is not the solution to all the problems and that some of the outstanding issues were referred to earlier.

It is very important that positive days and achievements such as these would get the recognition they deserve and I hope we can build on this.

Does Ms Dorgan have any idea of the number of people affected with regard to the pandemic unemployment payment? It is an outstanding issue and I do not want it to eclipse the good and positive measures announced yesterday. Does Ms Dorgan have a breakdown on the tiers?

We are limited in what we can do at present and so much of it is dependent on what level we are at. We would all love to go back even to level 2. Earlier, Deputy O'Sullivan spoke about being able to experience live music in west Cork or, like me, in west Kerry. We miss this hugely. It is outside of our control in a way. It is in all of our control in one way but it is outside of our control in another. We are dependent on getting back there and I hope we can. In the meantime, does Ms Dorgan have a message on what people can do right now to support the people she represents? In the context of Christmas approaching, are there special things consumers can do to help? Have we fully explored the online potential? Is there more that can happen online than has already happened? Do we have further potential to support the sector that we have not fully utilised?