Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

It is a useful way to prompt an important discussion about the position of the craft sector in our economy. Unfortunately, we do not always look at economic value in the craft sector. The Design and Crafts Council Ireland is an important organisation but, to the best of my recollection, it is not on a statutory basis. It has a relationship with Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices, and Enterprise Ireland staff do a very good job of promoting Irish craft and design abroad and developing the potential for professional crafts people and designers to export, but we need a wider conversation about Irish design more generally.

I did a lot of work on this a number of years ago. Design encompasses everything, whether it is from design of public services or craft, architecture and engineering. We could look at how they embed design, standards and qualities into everything they do in some of the countries we like to compare ourselves against, like the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and so on. However, it is a bigger point and it is something we have to have a national conversation on. One good way would be to better resource and we should look at the scheme of priorities around statutory bodies. I am open to correction but as far I know, the Design and Crafts Council Ireland has not been put on a statutory basis and then finds itself sometimes in a less than advantageous position when it is seeking multi-annual funding and so on.