Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, work by the artist Maser was removed from the Project Arts Centre building in Dublin. It is the second time this art has had to be removed. The cause for concern is that it was done under threat of loss of funding from a State body on the grounds that it was political. This country has an inglorious record of censorship, both artistic and political, and this Parliament should be clear: a piece of art was removed from an arts building in 2018, in a ruling more reminiscent of the Committee on Evil Literature of the 1920s. George Orwell stated "The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude." Is it also the Taoiseach's belief that art should not argue for social change and that charities should not either? The assertion by the chief executive officer, CEO, of the Charities Regulator that a mural with the words "Repeal the 8th" with a heart around them is outside the brief of an arts centre is a subjective one by the CEO himself, someone who has a long connection with the Catholic Church and a history of writing Catholic texts. Will the Taoiseach investigate and review this decision - including how the mural came under orchestrated attack with all the complaints being lodged on one day - and send a message that we have broken with Ireland of the past or are we back to the old days of de Valera, when the arts had to keep to the holiest traditions?

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