Mr. Sunil Sharpe:

Yes, absolutely. It is a subject very close to my heart and to our campaign. In terms of pubs and ballrooms, pubs are the long-term home of music of any existing industry that we have at the moment so they must be part of this conversation. The next conversation that needs to open is how we develop a new strategy for music, recognising traditional music, modern music, and everything in between. We have a rich musical heritage in Ireland, and we need to celebrate it, from the past into the future. In our campaign we look back to the dance hall era. We are inspired by the showband era because it shows what one can do by opening up a whole country to musicians. We should have a venue circuit with a register because we do not have enough. So many venues have shut, but we have many existing spaces, including pubs. As Senator Murphy said, there are function rooms. We know that many spaces are now being used for weddings and there are many spaces we would love to get our hands on for events but we must look at what we have. We have arts centres, theatres, and pubs, and many of them do not have enough business and they need to be used as music spaces. Music is mentioned less and less. It is part of the arts, but it needs its own recognition. It falls through the cracks. I do not know if Senator Murphy looked at the rural report yesterday. Did he see how many times music was mentioned in that? It was mentioned once in 128 pages. The only time it was mentioned was in terms of the tourism strategy. I am with Senator Murphy on that. We need more spaces and we need to put the spaces that we have to better use, and we need to reimagine other spaces. Hopefully, one day we might even build venues again. I am with Senator Murphy on all of that. Music has to be part of culture.