Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I share the Deputy's sentiments on the orchestras. I would not like to see either being lost, or the two being merged. I read a letter in the newspaper recently - I cannot remember who wrote it - which pointed out that Finland, which is a similar sized country to ours, has many orchestras where we only have two. In the past the Army had bands and orchestras, but it no longer does, and we now only have two orchestras. I would like to see both retained and for both to prosper.

I will ask the two Ministers who have some line responsibility for the matter to come together to examine the issue and see what can be done about it. The two Ministers are Deputy Josepha Madigan, as Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and the Minister, Deputy Denis Naughten, who is currently in Paris, has responsibility for RTÉ through his Department. I will ask them to examine the issues to see if anything can be done to secure the future of the two orchestras. The Deputy has my commitment on that.

However, it is important that orchestras do not get caught up-----

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