John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister specified community involvement and the bottom-up approach, which is central to the application process. Does it not account for a proportion of the cuts in the arts in every city and town in Ireland? An example is that over the past five years there has been a nationwide cull of funding to regional theatre companies. There is a widespread perception that funding to smaller regional companies is being sacrificed for the five, mainly Dublin-based, companies. When the Minister's Department examines the applications for the city of culture designation, will the impact of funding cuts that have taken place in each city's arts scheme be taken into account?

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