Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I know the Minister is keen to increase participation in the arts and made a speech to that effect at the launch of the NESF report, which went down well with the players in the arts. I reiterate the point that unless we increase participation in the arts through the schools, the arts will always be on the fringe. We must mainstream the arts. The Minister is probably too polite to say this, but I am not — if there is inertia here, it is coming from the Department of Education and Science. I know it is the Department that is most resistant to change. Therefore, it falls to the Minister to drive this. If it is to proceed, he will have to get behind it. It must be his initiative. I am sure he accepts that but I ask him to take that burden. Schools are the key in turning around participation in the arts but the arts should not just be an occasional experience for students. While the artists in residence programme, for example, is wonderful, it is not permanently in place in schools. It is available in a school one year, but not the next, meaning the next cohort of students do not get to enjoy it. It is tantalising and it is almost worse than nothing to give students something and then take it away.

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