Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

I agree that the campaign was very successful, and participants met with 83 Members, with approximately 11,000 e-mails sent out to support the campaign. The first element of the campaign looked to retain Arts Council funding at current levels. The Minister has already indicated she cannot give any guarantees in that respect but I am sure she will make a really strong case for the retention of the funding. I remember when the funding was cut by €5 million in 2002, the process was upset and it took the Arts Council and related organisations a long time to recover from that.

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