Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak, albeit for only three minutes. I have requested that we have statements on the arts in the near future. I look forward to a more extended opportunity to speak on the arts.

I thank Deputy McHugh for acknowledging my work in the arts in a voluntary capacity at community level. It has enhanced my life and I hope others have also gained. In this country we take the arts for granted. The report of an bord snip nua galvanised all who are passionate about the arts to highlight the value of the arts in our society. We benefit from the arts in many different ways, whether as practitioners or as people who attend artistic performances, exhibitions and so on. It is wonderful that we are finally having a debate on this, two and a half years down the line. I take this opportunity to commend the National Campaign for the Arts on its ongoing work in this area.

Participants in arts-related activities are sometimes so engrossed in producing their work or participating at in particular activities, at whatever level, that they forget to consider their work in a broader context in terms of the value they are bringing to themselves, their communities and society as a whole. The Indecon report commissioned by the Arts Council put figures on something we all assumed but had no way of proving. The report showed, for example, that the arts sector provides more than 21,000 jobs and contributes more than €300 million in taxes. We learned from the report that the wider creative industry gives €4.7 billion to the economy annually. These data copperfasten the convictions of those of us who are passionate about the arts as to its wide-ranging value to our society. What is more, they will help to convince those who are distracted by issues they consider more important that we must continue to invest in the arts on the basis that such investment will benefit us all. We have not yet acknowledged the value in a range of therapies, whether health therapy, involvement with youth and so on. We must explore all of that more fully.

As a people, we seem to have lost sight of the reality that our cultural institutions belong to all of us. People are often amazed to be told that entrance to the National Museum and National Gallery, for instance, is free. Unfortunately, the Acting Chairman has indicated that my time is up. I am looking forward to a debate where I will have an opportunity to expand on the points I have made. I am passionate about the arts and am committed to doing everything I possibly can to ensure the artistic community will continue to be supported in its endeavours for the benefit of society in general.

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