Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for her comments. We all agree culture night was an outstanding success. It got great public coverage, which helped bring the message of what was happening to people. One can never win — the Deputy suggested there was too much to do, whereas, usually, the criticism is there is not enough to do. Culture night is a work in progress in terms of learning how to manage a programme of this scale. It is heartening that the public responds in such significant numbers and from all age groups to these types of events. We will consider how we can maximise the interest.

One of the major benefits of how culture night is structured is that it is cost effective. We do not have to invest significant funds in it, which is what makes it such a huge success. We do not want to turn the event into something that costs millions to organise. It has good success and balance and we must consider how we can retain its ethos and flavour if we need to expand it, not just in Dublin, but in the other four cities. It could expand to other cities also, such as Wexford, Kilkenny and others. Perhaps it would be more important and beneficial to consider expanding it throughout the country rather than just increasing participation in Dublin. That is what I would like to do in the future.

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