Mr. John O'Connell:

I thank the Senator for his kind words about the Walls Project. That community engagement the Senator witnessed in Gorey is very much at the heart of what we do. We try to bring it into our work as much as possible. We seek community buy-in before we create an artwork so that people feel they have a voice and expression, and feel a sense of ownership towards the work that will eventually appear on the wall in front of them. That is an important part of the process. It is not always possible in respect of every single wall but we always try to take into account that people have to live with these art works. It is important that they are on board, insofar as that is possible.

We have quite a happy set-up with the local authority in Waterford at this stage. We have a process of planning consent whereby we are producing 30 to 40 walls each year in Waterford city. If we had to go through planning permission for something like that, it would make the work impossible.

We have a process set up with the council whereby it sees sketches in advance. The wall owners give their consent and there is a memorandum of understanding between ourselves and the council. It has worked very well to date. It is important to say that artistic freedom is also protected in all of this. It does not become either a workshop process or a bureaucratic process. The artist still has time to thrive, flourish and express themselves and do their thing. We work very hard to protect that through all of our work.