Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In Carlow town, we are so very fortunate to have the VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, one of Ireland's leading contemporary arts spaces. It opened in 2009. With its beautiful gallery space and performance area, it is an incredible amenity to have. VISUAL houses a 335-seat theatre and the largest white-cube gallery space in the country. It produces a programme of both commissioned and existing high-quality national and international contemporary art, plus a host of performances, including dance, film, comedy literature and music. Its values have inclusion and collaboration at their core. The communities of Carlow and Ireland as a whole have been gifted so much by the centre. In its mission statement, VISUAL states it is committed to identifying and removing physical, social and economic barriers to support, foster and provide opportunities for arts participation in our communities. However, funding is a large barrier to completing this work.

Just recently, the company operating the centre had to seek a subvention from Carlow County Council of nearly €90,000 because it needed to make up a shortfall in funding and meet operational costs for the year. Carlow arts centre, which is owned by the council, wrote to the council asking it for funding due to the increased energy and utility costs, a lack of audiences due to Covid and reductions in VAT recoupment. It is not the first time that the centre has gone to council looking for extra money. I am genuinely worried about the future of VISUAL. Giving money from local authority funds means something else gets cut. I have raised the issue of the theatre not being sufficiently accessible to community groups because of the cost of hiring the venue. This is not acceptable. The arts should be for all to enjoy. That is a huge issue for me when working with community groups that want to hire VISUAL. Owing to the cost, they cannot afford to do so. That is not right.

Currently, all funding from the Arts Council goes to the gallery at the centre but the theatre does not receive Government funding. VISUAL was set up initially as a limited company to allow it to participate in the capital goods scheme and avail of VAT recoupment during the construction phase. Now is the time to address the problem. VISUAL, one of Ireland's leading contemporary arts spaces, needs funding. VISUAL was an €18 million development, a project jointly funded by the local authority and with a grant of €3.17 million from the Department under the access programme.

Carlow County Council and the Arts Council have provided funding in the past; however, neither will have such resources following Covid-19. It will be like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

The centre is regularly involved in making funding applications but we can support it and what it is trying to do if we just bring it under the Department and allocate funding from central government. I am seeking that today. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, several times and to every Minister I could to try to get funding for VISUAL. We have the most beautiful arts space and theatre that you ever came across. It is right in the centre of Carlow town. We are so proud of it but we do not get enough funding. We need to avail of the funding stream from the Government, but that is not happening at present. I ask the Minister to ask the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to provide funding from central government.

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