Ms Melanie Scott:

The role of local authorities as brokers is really important. The education sector is an area with which we work directly across a range of schemes. The Cathaoirleach asked specifically about the ETBs. The Music Generation programme is an initiative on which most local authorities are working with ETBs locally. It has transformed music education across the country and has been a very fruitful partnership. Part of our role is to encourage and enable that type of engagement.

Regarding creative schools and local education centres, there is the teacher-artist partnership, TAP, programme and the bringing live arts to student and teachers, BLAST, programme. We are often the matchmaker between the artists and the education programmes. It is a role we very much play right across the country. We touched on rural arts access earlier. In my area in Tipperary, our arts in education programme is a really important way of ensuring access to the arts for pupils in small rural schools. The same is being done across the county. We should not underestimate the value of that type of engagement very early in young people's lives in terms of developing their own creativity as artists. It is an important area of our work.