Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for joining us. Céad mile fáilte. I welcome the committee's work on this matter. Arts is built on community activity. It starts in school and at home with friends and family. Consequently, cultural activity is built on community activity. As such, the committee's focus on local art is timely and welcome.

I wish to address a couple of significant issues in the context of community art, namely, public art or murals and access to workspaces for artists in our cities and towns across the country. Both issues can fall under the umbrella of creating space for artists. In my city, the Dublin City Council development plan recently made reference to a cultural space in new developments. That was welcome, but there is a caveat, in that it will be dependent on a market that has driven artists out of existing properties and workspaces and, in terms of housing, has driven them to other cities abroad, including Berlin. Will Mr. Yeates discuss what is needed from artists' spaces? According to Dublin City Council's recent audit, there are 2,500 artists in the city but only 529 workspaces for them. In addition to the development plan, what will the council's response be to this issue? Is the council committing to the Dean Art Studios permanently providing workspaces for artists?

Regarding public art, murals are a brilliant genre for artists to respond to what is happening in a city. They create a spontaneous city or town where everything can often seem commercial. They create an element of surprise in our towns and cities. Today's session is useful in getting a sense of the approaches of the different local authorities to public art and murals. Later, an artist will tell us that the current practice of permissions is inconsistent and differs depending on eircode and local authority. Will the representatives from Waterford, Dublin and Cork tell us how they approach the issue of public art and the granting of permission for same? Does Mr. Yeates have data on the number of organisations that Dublin City Council has complained to about public art erected on their properties? He mentioned that the council regularly agreed to the installation of murals. Is the council the only authority that can commission public art and is it illegal in every other instance?

I could probably have confined my questions a little better.