Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Funding for 2011 will have to be agreed in the Estimates. We must await the outcome. The high-level objectives have been agreed with Opera Ireland, the Opera Theatre Company and the Arts Council. These have already been set out and include producing opera at all scales, promoting and encouraging the experience of opera productions among a wider audience, encouraging the development of the opera industry, establishing an innovative and diverse education and outreach programme and developing opera as an art form through the commissioning and presentation of new work.

With regard to debts, they will need to be managed and examined. The new company is to have its inaugural meeting after Easter.

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