Professor Kevin Rafter:

I will speak to the issue of workspaces, following which Ms Kennelly will provide further detail. The issue of workspaces is a topic that has been discussed at recent meetings of our board. It is a significant and serious issue in terms of the absence of workspaces, particularly in urban centres and in big towns throughout the country. We have put some proposals to the Department for an ambitious pilot plan to have art workspaces in a number of regional centres. As the Senator is aware, the Arts Council has a current budget; it does not have a capital budget. We hope that, in partnership with the Department and working closely with local authorities, we will be able to see this proposal realised over the next few months. We are also engaged with the local authorities in the Dublin region in relation to a number of spaces. We are undertaking research to get to the hard statistics on the challenges and difficulties artists face in terms of workspaces. Perhaps Ms Kennelly will say more about the proposal we submitted to the Department.