Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

To follow up on the ethnic identifier, the ring-fencing of funding is all very good but once it is ring fenced it could all be spent on one project and it does not filter down. That is the danger. I am on another committee that deals with the Irish language. The Arts Council was before us on something else altogether. In the middle of that discussion, there was a question about how to ensure that Arts Council funding goes to the Irish language because that has always been a criticism, at least against some of it. We were told that the council could set a percentage of every festival that gets money from the Arts Council, so that a certain amount has to be set aside for Irish language events as part of the festival. It may be that part of what is intended here is that when public money is allocated that there has to be a percentage if it cannot happen automatically. The evidence is that it is not happening and it is an afterthought for the Irish language and it is for diverse communities in Ireland. For Travellers, it is not even an afterthought, but it is well after in most cases. How do we force the State sector, which is the biggest funder, to look to ensure that funding goes the way it is meant to go rather than how it has gone to date?