Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations this afternoon. I come from a Border county myself, the constituency of Cavan-Monaghan. I have a background in arts, and I appreciate that artists always struggle in terms of employment and income. Artists living in the Border region they have depended quite a bit on funding. The Arts Council is the main source of that funding. It is a national funding stream. The cross-Border opportunities that we have had over the past 20 or 30 years have provided for artists, and of course Leitrim is well known for being an artist capital in the Border region, particularly the Glens Centre and the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, which I have visited on a number of occasions.

With regards the dependency that exists in the Border region, between peace funding and INTERREG funding and other funding streams, and the arts being one of the main vehicles for promoting social cohesion and bridge building and allowing people to be comfortable with their own identity - be it in the minority or majority - are there any possible solutions for artists in this? We need to see continued EU funding going into the North to allow the good work that has been done to continue. Contrary to what Ms Hayward said, the everyday crossing of the Border to get to work or visit family is one of the main discussion pieces that I have been party to in debates. To return to Ms McKay, are there any solutions that we could be working on in terms of the artistic community that is so dependent on cross-Border funding streams?