Ms Orlaith McBride:

We are both saying the same thing, but we do not talk outside a forum such as this. Integrated policy making is important. When I cited the relationship with local authorities, it was because after 30 years of partnership one can see how, through our work with the City and County Management Association, CCMA, with the local authorities and through a recent memorandum of understanding between the CCMA and the Arts Council as two parts of local government and national government, there is at least an integrated approach. The Arts Council and other industries and areas of government need to consider integrated policy. That could be this committee’s work. We hear again and again how creativity is essential to a global economy and we need to create an innovative workforce. That starts not at third level colleges such as Ballyfermot but with children aged between five and seven and continues throughout their education. How do we ensure creativity is embedded in the way teaching and learning happen in primary and secondary schools? We need much more integration among the creative industries, the arts, tourism and enterprise.

It involves IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. When Merck Sharp & Dohme located to Carlow to develop its vaccine development facility, the county manager there is on record as stating very clearly that the creation of the visual arts centre and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow was one of the reasons this company located in Carlow. The company said that if a local authority was that visionary, in terms of how it developed, encouraged and supported culture and the arts for local citizens, it was the kind of place the company wanted to locate to. It is really important for Government policy to be far more integrated across different sectors and that we are not peripheral to the national agenda. It is important that we are seen as being critical to the national agenda.