Ms Siobh?n Clancy:

I echo the words of Ms Cantwell. Partnership is enormous. I refer to drawing from partners who would have on-the-ground knowledge, including through community development projects that are working every day with the experience of those who are affected, and creating opportunities to facilitate and to support, which is what we do within the arts office. It involves engaging with people who have the lived experience. For example, in Cork city, only last Friday we were supportive of the anti-racism youth-led summit where simple, practical measures that young people encounter as barriers in their participation in the areas such as transport can be addressed by means of a cross-sectoral partnership approach.

We also acknowledge the role of various Departments in providing access to the arts through the Creative Ireland Programme, as Ms Carew mentioned. I also take the example of the of the Supporting Traveller and Roma, STAR, project, through the Department of Education, which has been supporting participation in schools through creativity by young Traveller and Roma children. That is a pilot project. It is coming to end now. It has been extremely successful in Cork, not only in engaging the young people directly who participated in it but also in influencing other arts organisations and practitioners across the city to see how they can take those inclusive values and strategies within their programmes. I refer, for example, to Music Generation, which has been actively engaging with the young participants of STAR. They are discovering together how music programmes across the city might be more inclusive in order to ensure a level of diversity. As I said, the key is partnership and I also echo the longitudinal approach.