Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

I am sure the members will make the decision to allocate the greatly reduced funding they have at their disposal. No matter how the Minister dresses it up, it is €9 million less than they had last year and only a fraction of the budget is spent on administration, and a fraction of that is to be saved. Whoever did the spinning for the Minister may have assumed nobody else could do sums but that is not the case.

When does the Minister intend to appoint a chairperson to the Arts Council? Is it true the position has been offered and turned down on several occasions? That is the information I have.

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