Ms Katherine Licken:

Galway 2020 was for Galway, which is a city that is steeped in culture. This was to be one of its finest moments. Obviously, the pandemic had a huge impact on Galway 2020, like it has done on so many other sectors. The combined public sector funding - not just the Exchequer funding, but the combined funding of the Exchequer, the local authorities and other sources of funding for that project - was to be 85%. That was the combination. The programme was launched in February 2019 and the pandemic hit in March. It became clear to us quickly that some elements of the funding would not materialise. On the local authority funding, local authorities were hit hard by loss of income from sources such as parking, rates, etc. We then had a decision to make whether we would continue with Galway 2020. The 50% Exchequer funding was a guide, which we put out when we first asked the cities of Ireland to put in bids. We said that there would be a guide of either €15 million, which was even at that stage only a guide, and 50% of the cost funded by the Exchequer.