Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the scheme and that money was provided. It was announced that the scheme was open and there was a closing date for it. The only venue in County Donegal that is eligible for the scheme is The Social in Gaoth Dobhair. I will give an example and the Minister will be aware of it because all the details were provided. The Social operated 84 eligible grassroots events during the two years that the scheme was available. This means that the venue was, on average, operating one of these events every week. This is a stand-alone facility; this is not a pub. It hosted ticketed events with artists such as The Hothouse Flowers, Muireann Bradley and others from across the island of Ireland. This supported sound engineers, lighting engineers and, most importantly, the acts themselves. To my knowledge, not one venue in the north west has been granted this money.

The Minister announced this scheme that went from €5,000 up to €15,000 and the Department decided that 12 eligible applicants would get no money whatsoever. It would have been fairer for the Department give every eligible applicant €11,000 or thereabouts. There was €500,000 available so each could have got €11,000. However, the Department decided to give the money on a first-come first-served basis, despite the fact that in the case of The Social, its application was in to the Department within a week. They were told that someone got in before them and that was it. That is completely unfair. Good luck to all the venues that got the support. I imagine that there are very few that were as active and had as many eligible events as The Social in Gaoth Dobhair. The Minister will have this data.

My question to the Minister chimes with what Jim McGuinness has been talking about regarding Donegal GAA for a while. Does the Minister not recognise that there are grassroots venues in the north west, that there are acts that need to be supported in these venues and that there are sound engineers and technicians who need to have a way of life as a result of that? The night-time economy initiative in Buncrana is completely different. No venue in Buncrana is eligible. No venue in counties Donegal, Sligo or Monaghan fit the criteria that have been set, bar The Social.

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