Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I will not cut across the Minister, other than to say that we can differentiate, and should be able to do so, between governance failures and shortcomings in an agency or organisation and the vital work done by artists on the ground in the community supported through that agency. I know that is a view shared by the Minister. I will ask him to come back to the Deputy directly on this. The basic income scheme, which was meant to be a pilot, was rolled over and has now become a permanent scheme. The Deputy welcomed that, and I welcome that. We also need to look at the overall capital and current budget for arts and culture in the round in terms of the investment we will see in major arts and culture projects in the years ahead. I will ask the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, to come back to the Deputy directly.

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