Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very much of the opinion that they should continue to be open to the public free of charge. In England whenever they introduce charging into cultural institutions, the number of visitors drop by about 50%. I would not want that to happen here. That is why this additional funding is so important. I will publish a breakdown of the €2 million in due course. I intend to allocate funding to all of the cultural institutions and will decide in the coming weeks exactly how much will go to each institution. That has not been finalised. I have been talking to them, and on that basis, the allocations will be decided. The Department officials have been preparing proposals on the allocations in close consultation with the cultural institutions.

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