Ms Catherine Heaney:

I thank the Deputy for those observations. He highlights one of the points we make in our submission, which is the need for greater collaboration across the sector. It takes in the use of bases like museums in the main, and particularly national cultural institutions, as the public spaces that they are. All these public spaces are recognised under the national development plan. If that all follows through, there is a tremendous opportunity for collaboration and bringing different strands of culture together under one roof. We are ambitious about bringing in new audiences and diversifying.

It is one of the plinths in the cultural strategy from the Department to increase collaboration across the sector. We are very mindful of that and now is a good time to start thinking about how that can be done. Much of the cultural sector, and particularly cultural institutions, has innovated and brought in artists-in-residence, programmes and the likes over the course of the pandemic. This is not just a pandemic measure but something we must make constant. There is clearly a funding attachment under that but if we can look at being more diverse in the sourcing of statutory funding from different Departments and having less strict lines around what should do what, we could make a more dynamic cultural space. I thank the Deputy again for his observations.