Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

WB Yeats, the great Sligo poet, wrote:

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

When he wrote "The Stolen Child", it concerned children who were born weak and passed away. He had beautiful imagery of the fairies taking the weak child to a better place from a world of weeping and trouble. Would it not be wonderful if we had WB Yeats today to write about the young people emigrating to the four corners of the world? These are the people we should be keeping at home, but the fairies are not taking them away. Ireland is driving them away through her action and inaction.

Art, at its most basic, should both mirror and shape society. This country and the arts are synonymous, and throughout the world Ireland is renowned for the quality of its artists and the work produced down through the centuries to now. Whether it is in the field of music, theatre, literature or film, the Irish have punched far above their weight on the international scene. This is not just a modern phenomenon, and as far back as the Middle Ages, Irish manuscripts far surpassed anything else that had been produced in Europe at that time. Irish craft and metalwork was envied by contemporaries.

Culture and the arts have been renewed and revived through generations of Irish people, and for this we have received worldwide recognition. The arts should never be solely about money as it has the potential to bring smiles to people in pain and lift the hearts of those who are suffering. Anyone going to a traditional music session or attending a theatre to watch a play or visiting an art gallery can see the transfixed faces of others. Even if it is only for a short time, these people are taken from their daily worries and put in a place of beauty that lifts their hearts.

There are philistines who will argue that in a time of economic stringency, we cannot afford to subsidise the arts. Nevertheless, there is a strong economic argument in favour of financial support for the arts. Some of the figures I found in research surprised me. For example, the total of direct, indirect and induced employment in Arts Council funded organisations and the wider arts sector is 21,328. How much would it cost the IDA to produce 21,328 sustainable jobs in the country? The total of direct, indirect and induced employment supported by the arts and creative industries is 79,000 jobs. In 2011, direct Exchequer revenue from the cultural and creative sectors was in excess of €1 billion, and 80% of foreign tourists cite culture and heritage as a motivating factor in choosing Ireland. Moreover, 1.6 million overseas tourists attend galleries and museums and 433,000 overseas tourists attend festivals and other events.

Cultural tourism is worth more than €2 billion to the economy, so the philistines must understand that there is a very solid economic basis for this State and the Government to support the arts industry. Cultural tourism is the only growth area of the tourism market and it has continued potential for significant growth. However, funding for and investment in the arts is down by 25% from €84.6 million in 2008 to €63.2 million in 2011.

I fear that reduction in investment will have a consequential reduction in the financial benefits we receive as a nation from those who come to study our arts and culture.

To take the example of Irish music, for no reason other than it is a passion of mine, and the influence it has had on the Irish identity and the great potential it holds, there is a strong argument for investment. In my area of Sligo-Leitrim, there are the renowned traditional musicians of the past, including the late great Michael Coleman, Seamus Morrison, Ladda Beirne, Joe O'Dowd, Seamus Kelly and John McKenna, which are household names not only in this country but abroad, down to today's great exponents who are carrying on and making this tradition flourish, including Brian Rooney, the Lennon family, Seamie O'Dowd, Seamus Tansey, Kila, Dervish, Seamus Connolly and hundreds more. I will probably be in serious trouble at home because I have missed more than I have named. There are also the Emerald Revellers, the lovely dancing troupe. There are many musicians of other genres who play a valuable and important role in Irish culture and that fact is recognised throughout the world. Major artists such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, whom a speaker mentioned earlier, who are world known musicians, have acknowledged the influence of Irish culture on their music and poetry. Those who know the beauty and the value of culture, poetry and music acknowledge it, and they acknowledge the influence we have had on their own development.

To come up to date, an Irish band, U2, is one of the biggest selling bands in the world. How many U2s are waiting to be discovered and play an important role in the promotion of Ireland as a country that develops, promotes, protects and values Irish music and all forms of music?

Music also has a very important role to play in how we perceive ourselves as a people. We are probably unrivalled in the popular knowledge of folk songs that tell the story of Irish history, often from the forgotten perspective of the ordinary man and woman. Music still has a very important part to play in the development of the Irish psyche. What better way is there of giving young people a platform to express what they are going through during the current economic crisis than through the medium of music. Government fostering, rather than government control, of music in Ireland will bear fruits for generations to come.

Similarly, Irish literature is widely regarded on the world stage. The list of influential and renowned authors, poets and playwrights that this small island has produced is astounding. Perhaps most importantly, Irish writers have accurately and fluidly transcribed the feelings, beliefs and perspectives of the Irish people. William Butler Yeats could accurately describe the Irish rural idyll when he penned about a small cabin in his poem, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree". Patrick Kavanagh hit home the problems of rural isolation when he said, "O stony grey soil of Monaghan, The laugh from my love you thieved". These writers have probably done more for Ireland and its people through their writings than all the bankers and developers could ever hope to do. People like them need to be encouraged.

I started with William Butler Yeats so I will finish him. In September 1913, some people who appreciated the importance of the arts in Ireland were trying to get businessmen in Dublin and throughout the country who would help them financially to build the Hugh Lane Gallery, and they were not having much success. William Butler Yeats penned at the time the request that they not add the ha'penny to the penny and the prayer to shivering prayer. I ask the Minister not to add the ha'penny to the penny and the prayer to the shivering prayer.

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