Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raised the issue of physical infrastructure as part of the legacy. The bid book for Galway 2020, on which it was awarded the designation of 2020 European Capital of Culture, set out that any new capital infrastructure to be delivered is part of Galway's cultural strategy 2016 to 2025, Everybody Matters, which is developed and managed by the local authorities. The bid book also stated that infrastructure was not part of the European Capital of Culture project, which would rely on existing infrastructure and infrastructure that came onstream between the designations and delivery through existing plans and development. It is generally acknowledged, however, as part of Galway's cultural strategy and in the planning for Galway 2020 that the cultural dividend and legacy arriving from the delivery of Galway's year as European Capital of Culture would help to create the need for more cultural infrastructure, and this was set out in the third monitoring report of the expert panel to the EU in October 2019. I will ask my officials to follow up on the Deputy's question about open calls.

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