Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I very much agree with that final sentiment. This has to be about facilitating children and young people and having that space to make art. Just in listening to the reply, however, we heard references to the Department of Education, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, in its local government aspect.

When I first entered politics, I was given some advice by former Deputy Trevor Sargent. He told me that one of the main challenges was to get a Minister to put his or her name to a proposal to avoid it being bounced around from Department to Department. The report reads:

Funding tends to be small, project focused and not guaranteed across time, creating a dependency on volunteerism ... at the point of delivery. This level of funding [on a short-term basis] positions youth arts as a non-professional practice outside of the area of state responsibility [and essentially being bounced from pillar to post in terms of funding].

The Minister of State mentioned how Waterford Youth Arts had been in the business for a long time. Ms Breda Murphy and Mr. Ollie Breslin have been involved in it for probably more years than they would care to admit. However, instead of focusing on arts practice and fostering the artistic expression of young people, a large part of the job is chasing money from pillar to post. We need to be more coherent in bringing everything together and making it a reliable job for the people involved.

It might be the first time the Minister of State is hearing this, but the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is probably sick to death of hearing about how we are developing a framework for progressing well-being budgeting. I have been arguing consistently that we should have a 12th indicator that measures arts, culture, language, etc. Through such a framework, perhaps we could enhance our understanding and appreciation of what arts can do within our society.

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