Professor Kevin Rafter:

Ms Kennelly and I might deal with some of those questions. I was at the cinema last night and Ms Kennelly and I were at the Abbey Theatre last week. Both those indoor events were run safely and professionally but with very small audiences. That is the challenge in the current environment. It is obviously hugely frustrating for artists, arts workers and arts organisations but everything we have done has been minded by the national public health guidelines. We take those guidelines and work with the resource organisations and our funded organisations to adhere to those guidelines.

We would have hoped to be further along at this stage. I hope that as we move through the year, and notwithstanding the uncertainty of the past couple of days, we will see greater relaxation of restrictions and more audiences in auditoriums. It is challenging. Ms Kennelly and her staff have been working on this matter with the Department. Perhaps she could give the committee more detail of the specifics of those discussions.