Ms Virginia Teehan:

I thank the Deputy. It is nice to see him again. Specifically dealing with his query on museums, as Ms Moloney has said, in 2022 we will be setting up a specific grants scheme that is aimed at supporting museum curators, archivists and conservation officers in local authorities. This is because we are aware of the points that the Deputy raised. It is difficult for those who work in sometimes very small museums across the country to access funding. Our community heritage grant scheme has been successful in securing the protection of museum objects. For example, I was looking at some of the grants. In the past few days we awarded just €3,084, which is nothing. That grant is responsible for the conservation of a Torah. It is an important Jewish manuscript that had been rescued from the Holocaust. That Torah belongs to the Jewish congregation in Dublin. This small funding can help communities. We are aware of the vulnerability of collections across the country. We want to support them and we want to invest in them, as Ms Moloney says, in the training of the museum curators, archivists and conservation officers, as well as by giving funding specifically aimed towards that.