John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While this is not a criticism and the Minister of State is an esteemed colleague, €2.6 million is a very small budget that would build three special needs classrooms. The Minister of State will have heard me speak about the following things before. I would love to see research into how we can replicate Culture Night in Dublin. It is one night per year and yet it absolutely transforms the city. One rarely sees families in Dublin but on Culture Night, the city is populated with families. We have many art galleries but when we look at the tradition, history and reach of Irish music internationally, we see we have no tourist offering, whether for people at home or for visitors from abroad. One of my ambitions is for a good look to be taken at the Customs House. It houses the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It is not fit for purpose for a modern Department that preaches the climate action piece. It would make an incredible city-centre based museum as a showcase for the history of music in Ireland from O'Carolan right through to contemporary musicians. What a site and location it is and could be as a tourist attraction. We could put a bit of money into Culture Night and the Customs House in terms of research and the tourist offering in the city centre.

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