Ms Siobh?n Maher:

The application process for murals in the city, and in the other local authorities as far as I am aware, is straightforward. People can either use the planning process, which is an eight-week process where they apply as anyone else would, say what they are going to do to the building and how they will change it, outline the scale of it and allow the neighbours and so on to have a voice in that conversation, or they can engage in partnership with the local authority on an appropriate space to deliver the street art, whatever it might be. The criteria for the latter process are a lot more straightforward and it is a more agile process. They are required to get permission from the owner. The premises must not be a protected structure, original stone or anything of that nature and the content needs to be signed off by the local authority, purely from the perspective of whether there is advertising in it and whether it is appropriate for a public arena. It is a very different experience, as the Senator suggested, to come across a mural that is a spontaneous art piece for somebody who is passing by compared with for somebody who lives opposite it and has to look at it every day of the week. The process that is in place allows for that consultation to be had, for the artist to have input and for the local authority to safeguard the built heritage of the city.