Ms Orlaith McBride:

I will reply to the questions about the traditional arts and the minutes. It takes up to two months because the minutes of one meeting go to the next meeting to be formally approved by the council. The meetings are held every month to six weeks so that is the reason it is usually approximately two months before the minutes are published on the website. They must be formally approved at the next council meeting. It is procedural but in terms of good governance that must be the case. We cannot put the minutes of a State agency on the website without the formal approval of the council.

Regarding the traditional arts, there is a separate budget line for those. A total of €3.2 million is going to the traditional arts. The traditional arts were named in the Arts Act 2003 for the first time. Following that Act a special committee examined how the Arts Council might engage with the traditional arts. Until then, it had not done so in a real way. One of the recommendations from that committee was that a separate budget line which would attend to the particularities of the traditional arts - recognising that they are different, that there is a huge amount of amateur contribution to the traditional arts and that they happen in spaces and places outside of traditional arts venues and so forth - had to be established. As a result, there is a separate allocation for the traditional arts. There has been a huge growth in the traditional arts in Ireland and in the recognition of their value and how they contribute to enhancing our creativity as a people because of the State recognising in 2003 that the traditional arts had to be named in legislation. That happened in 2003 and we will continue to ensure that there is a separate budget line.