Mr. Colm Croffy:

It is significant. There are pressures on costs. My colleague from AIMS has mentioned the increase in rental space, which is primarily driven by utility costs. There is an increase in cost-of-living expenses, which everyone is feeling, but the other pressure I spoke about in the submission is the inability for the local community to get its hands on what used to be easy money to get, that is, sponsorship from the high street from businesses and retail. That is very difficult to get now in today's environment. To be fair to all the various authorities, funding is great and it is possibly better than it was a decade or two decades ago. It is a hell of a lot better, but an organisation still needs a fair shake, perhaps 60% to 70% of its own money, to create an event and for it to take place.

The other thing I would say is that in the 1990s and the early 2000s we had a lot more events for free. There are certainly a lot more community and local events now that are taking a modest charge or luach isteach at the door, which is trying to sandbag or ameliorate some of these cost rises for venues and everything else.

If I could beg Senator Cassells's indulgence for a moment, Senator Malcolm Byrne referred to the fund of the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Humphreys. I fully agree with the point that it would be a loss to the whole sector if we lose the professionalisation of arts administration and the husbandry of the artistic and creative. That is very important. That has come on in leaps and bounds on the island in three decades. What the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and Deputy Ó Cuív before her did as Minister, have done is they invested in the community facilities on the island so that there are more venues operating outside of Arts Council activities, standards, policies and procedures than there is inside the cap. For instance, my own theatre in Ballinasloe, a 420-seat theatre is not on any official list. There are only two official Arts Council funded theatres in County Galway, one is in Áras Éanna, and the other is in the city, the Town Hall Theatre. The rest do not exist officially. The Minister spent €340,000 on sustainability and green measures, changing all the windows and improving the roof on a Victorian venue from 1842, which happily hosted the 100th anniversary celebration of our musical society only a few weeks ago. There is a raft of investment going into community and arts venues that are not picked up by what my good colleague in the Theatre Forum and the Arts Council and arts officers are funding. If there is to be an audit of what is needed for the next 30 or 40 years of community activity and professional activity it should possibly include some of the other venues that my colleagues east and west of me around the table are using.