Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

As I mentioned previously, designation has been a major achievement for Dublin. As the Minister no doubt understands, we could lose the designation also. I am worried that our literary product in Dublin is rather dispersed. If one comes to Dublin looking for a literary experience, one must go to different places for it. The Yeats exhibition in the National Library of Ireland has been very successful but there is an exhibition on James Joyce that is not on display because there is no place to display it. It should be on display permanently.

If one considers all our successful writers since the time of Swift, one will realise that there is really nowhere to experience their work. The Irish Writers Centre has been very successful but it is receiving no funding from the Department or the Arts Council. Funding for literature amounts to only 4% of the Arts Council's funding, despite the fact that the Indecon report states the multiplier from literature is quite considerable.

I ask the Minister to consider seriously setting up a group, perhaps the group that won the designation, to consider making available a building, be it a museum or writers' centre, that would at once celebrate the achievements of past writers and encourage contemporary writers.

While Newman House on St. Stephen's Green is an option, another option is a building that has become iconic for the wrong reasons, namely the Anglo Irish Bank building, which I hope will be closed soon. It would be an ideal location and its use as a writers' centre would be positive.

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