Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Nobody can deny the capital funding that has been available to the arts in the past ten years and in the local authority of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown there are now two major theatres where there was none ten years ago. They are representative of the proliferation of facilities that has generated a need for further programmes if we are to get value for money from the ACCESS programme. There are hints of an emerging danger around the country because state of the art facilities, including theatres and multipurpose venues, have been built and do not have money for programming. There is no point in constructing a building without realising it must be managed, heated and maintained and that it needs programmes. It is most important that these buildings are well managed.

I spoke last month of the need for Arts Council funding for touring programmes and so on but today I want to focus the Minister's attention on the €40 million that is left in the NDP for funding facilities through the capital programme. That is a lot of money and we need to focus on where these facilities are to be located because representatives of a number of counties have expressed concern to me that every town in those counties has a facility and they are struggling to provide programming. We need to concentrate on growing audiences for these centres.

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