Ms Catherine Heaney:

Yes, there is greater scope. It is not all down to funding either as leadership is required as well. The Minister is in the room. We have Culture 2025 and it is really important that she is not the only person flying the flag for that. Putting culture back on the political agenda is probably a shared responsibility of this committee. Culture has really taken a hammering over the past decade. It needs to come back on the agenda. We have talked about the importance of how culture can influence outcomes in life. That is why that political will is required. It is a shared thing. We should be in here not just once but all the time engaging with the committee. That would be a big help. There are also planks of Culture 2025 that concern the loaning out of collections and how we can facilitate that by ensuring best practice in managing collections. There is also clearly a funding issue involved in that. The other piece that is very exciting in Culture 2025 is the whole idea of collaborating. Even in the conversations we were having outside during our long wait to get in here, we were talking about how we can better collaborate. There are many different aspects in this regard.

The other great thing that we all need to embrace is digitisation and access to collections through digitisation. I have some experience with the National Library of how its digitised parish records have resulted in phenomenal engagement right around the country and abroad with our diaspora. That is a real gateway to engaging with our cultural institutions.

Coming back to the point I made at the very start about the importance of children and so on, when I went on a school tour, we would go to Kilmainham Gaol or the Natural History Museum. These days there are play parks and so on, which are great and easy to do. Birthday parties are easy to do. My son's eighth birthday is on Saturday and we are going to Dublinia. It is a whole new experience for Dublinia as it has never done a birthday party, so this is a real challenge for it. It is a bit about attitude as well as funding. All of us in leadership positions have a responsibility to pave that way.