Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are concerns about how the money is being used. What is the Minister's response to Emmet Kirwan, the brilliant playwright, who said that Creative Ireland's so-called fifth pillar "appears to be that artists should get on message and it commodifies the arts and co-opts artists to put forward an idealised version to the world of what Ireland is like, which is a branding exercise; but artists put forward to the world what Ireland actually is or they challenge ideas about what Ireland is"?

Here Mr. Kirwan seems to express a legitimate worry that Creative Ireland is little more than a marketing plan and a way to control what is created. This is not a far-fetched idea, seeing as the brains behind the operation is John Concannon, who now heads up the Government's new strategic communications unit. What does the Minister have to say to this?

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