Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

A cigarette break might be desired by many after listening to some of the debate.

Any reduction in fees of this sort is welcome but it is clearly just a tokenistic measure. Anyone working in the night-time economy who is looking to develop arts and cultural spaces, creativity and trying to ensure a really vibrant future for live entertainment for music and nightlife will see this as far too little and will be aware that we need to do a great deal more to support our arts and cultural communities. The Labour Party's budget noted that the promised reform of licensing laws has to be accompanied by investment in arts and cultural spaces across cities and towns. It is the chronic shortage of such space, and not the relatively small fee for getting special exemption licences, that is really holding back the development of the nightlife industry. I think the Minister said it will be accompanied by a reduction in court fees as well. Clearly that is welcome, but it is investment in the sector that is so essential.

I speak as a representative of Dublin Bay South. The south inner city and the entire city centre is a vibrant area in which we are seeing the closure of creative spaces, the pricing out of smaller providers including dynamic young nightclub owners and live music operators, and the domination by a small number of big providers. That is really unfortunate. The real concern is younger people feeling priced out of the city centre with rising rents pricing them out of living there and rising rents for businesses pricing them out of having the sort of creative nightlife we all would like to foster in the city centre. On Culture Night, just last week, we saw a brilliant outpouring of the arts and creative sectors here in Dublin. More could be done than this token gesture of halving the fee. Why was this fee not simply waived altogether? Why are we not seeing the sort of investment in creative sectors that we have called for, including extended opening hours for national cultural institutions and serious increases in funding to help local authorities and others to fund purchases and to support artists and creatives in developing a vibrant nightlife?

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