Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

Yes, and again all that will be resource-dependent and depend on discussion between me and the Minister, Deputy Chambers. Local authorities up to now have been shouldering quite a lot of the burden of the physical infrastructure for the performing, visual and creative arts around the country, whether it is small galleries or small theatre spaces.

It is the local authorities that have been running them, or have approached the Department on a case-by-case basis and said they have a good site, a good story, a business case and have stress-tested numbers. They have asked us to have a look. We have done that in the past on a case-by-case basis, and we will continue to do it. There is no reason not to do it. We also, though, want to have something that is stand-alone and not the large-scale schemes and something that will cover, for instance, lights, sound, chairs, curtains, stages - the small, sports capital-like element of the arts capital funding. We want to initiate that and get it up and running as soon as possible.

We do need performance spaces for the next generation of people who are ultimately going to take to the stage in the Abbey or be on our screens in a Netflix or cinema production and the best place to do that is in their own parish. Going back to one of the things already said - and I do not know which of the members said it, but it might have been Deputy Brennan - I should have mentioned the issue of small drama groups across the country. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is outside the remit of the Arts Council. Country music feels it does not get enough. Small, rural and urban amateur drama societies feel they could do with getting a look in too. It cannot all fall back on the Department. With the chair and a new director or an acting-up director of the Arts Council, this is why we will need to have a fairly deep discussion around inclusivity, which Senator Noonan referred to.