Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all the witnesses. Culture begins in the community with family and friends and in school. Cultural engagement is built on community activity. It follows that a crucial point of State engagement is the local authority and local arts. I am delighted that this meeting is taking place and that the witnesses are all here to join us to discuss these issues. A number of years ago, I completed a review of all the arts spending across local authorities. At the time, in 2018, the arts programme spend was significant, at €67.2 million, which was almost on par with the Arts Council investment at that time. There was a significant democratic deficit, with a disparity between various local councils. It was a significant piece of work to produce. Would the Department furnish the committee with the spend per local authority on the arts on a regular basis so that we can assess the disparity of funding across the country? That is an important access issue.

The other issues I would like to raise is spaces. I am glad the National Campaign for the Arts has prioritised this as one of its issues. Mr. McGlynn and Ms Nugent have both touched on it. What can our committee call on the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media for? What capital investment actions can be taken? Is there scope for the Arts Council, under the Arts Acts, to work with capital for the first time to address the urgent need? There is a particular need in this city, I selfishly say. Dublin City Council's audit highlighted that there are 2,500 artists in the city but only 529 artists' workspaces for them. What I hear around the city is that, after housing, artists' spaces are the single biggest issue for their work. I would love to know what we as a committee can call on the Department to do about artists' spaces. The Dublin City Council development plan was welcome but there is still a market failure in some respects with regard to the affordability of that place, if and when it comes onstream.

I also wanted to talk about the North and what Sinn Féin would see as immoral and indefensible recent Tory cuts. What effect will they have on the Department for Communities? If we want to prioritise cross-Border co-operation, is it possible for organisations in the North to engage fully with organisations in the South, given the disparity of funding?

As Ms Nash mentioned, yesterday, we received the most up-to-date breakdown of the national development plan progress on national cultural institutions through Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh. It seems very slow. I know business cases are being asked for again from some cultural institutions. I would have expected progress on those projects to be further along than it is now. I would welcome a comment on that from Ms Nash.