Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is not the first time an issue with a capital of culture will have arisen. Wider lessons, in addition to those we are discussing, need to be learned from this and they are at a departmental, rather than individual council, level. That is something that, perhaps, we need to write to the Department about to determine how the capital of culture project is handled. It can be incredibly valuable. The city will not necessarily end up with capital assets but there could be intangible assets for the location such as being put on the map. There have been several bad experiences and we do not seem to learn from them, which is why it is more about the departmental, rather than individual council, level that we need to get to grips with it. We should not stop areas from applying to be a capital of culture, but we need to do it in such a way that we get value for money and a return for the cultural sector.