Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will not discuss the minutiae of the figures involved. However, many people are utterly confused about why Creative Ireland now appears to be the priority body for funding rather than the Arts Council which, unfortunately, suffered big cuts to its budget when the economy collapsed. They do not understand why those cuts were not restored. As Tánaiste, I was one of the biggest supporters of the arts budget. It lost out big time in budget 2018. All Members understand that. Creative Ireland has begun to sound more like an arts wing of the strategic communications unit. It seems to be about photo opportunities and precious little else but there is an important role to be played in terms of co-ordination. However, all I see from Creative Ireland is spin and photo opportunities for the Taoiseach, in particular, and the Minister. That is not good enough in terms of spending because there is so much else that needs to be done.

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