Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's agreement about the political role of art. Toni Morrison famously said, "All of that art-for-art's-sake stuff is BS. What are these people talking about?" She also stated:

All good art is political! There is none that isn't. And the ones that try hard not to be political are political by saying, "We love the status quo."

I am not sure whether there is any good art that is not political but I certainly think that attempting to rule out or censor art on the basis of it being political is extremely troublesome. Does the Minister agree with the Charities Regulator's move to say that unless the Maser mural was removed from the Project Arts Centre, the centre could lose its charitable status? Does the Minister agree with Dublin City Council's decision to threaten the withdrawal of funding from the International Literature Festival in Dublin unless a particular event, which was about the eighth amendment and which was not a campaigning or repeal event, was removed. Does the Minister agree with the decision to threaten to withdraw funding with the result that a particular event was cancelled?

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