Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the witnesses. I thank them for the work they do in maintaining and looking after our rich heritage. Covid has given us more of an appreciation of what is around us in our culture, history and surroundings.

We have had more time to look at that. There is a bright future for our museum sector, etc. Evening and night-time events were mentioned and I noticed in my county of Longford over the past couple of years that libraries have been used for such events, book launches, etc. We should consider opening our museums to such events. It would allow more people in and more people might get an appreciation of museums and what we have in them.

Since we have opened, where are visitor numbers at? The witnesses mentioned international tourism and we had a discussion yesterday in which I spoke on connectivity. We are still down on many routes that were there pre-Covid so, regarding tourism numbers for 2022, they are predicting Dublin Airport will be down 35%. The international numbers will not come in. Do the witnesses have a breakdown of visitor numbers from within the country and international pre Covid?

I agree multi-annual funding is needed so one can prepare and organise for years in advance. What is funding looking like for 2022 for the national cultural institutions? Have agreements been made on their funding going forward? Are all our museums Wi-Fi friendly? I mentioned people coming in and everyone has their phone. It is important to have that accessibility and capability in all museums. In my county, we have done that with all our libraries, which are now hotspots.

I will finish on an issue closer to home. This is for Ms Whitty from the IMA. We are probably the only county in the country, though I may be incorrect on this, that does not have a county museum. Yet we pay a five-figure sum to store our artefacts outside the county. That is a failing on us as a county but is there any link between museums around the country? Is there any help Ms Whitty could steer me towards with regard to pushing that on and getting it put in place?