Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)

I will be bringing forward proposals to Government shortly regarding the new arts capital scheme. It will be along the same lines as the sports capital grant scheme. It is a small amount of money to start with. We are testing the waters in year one but I hope to grow it exponentially over the next couple of years. It will be local authority-dependent. They own most of the properties around the country. It will not be open to the national cultural institutions. To be honest, they have enough money, which they get directly from the Department. This will be designed for the smaller groups around the country that do not have access to capital works and capital schemes but I will encourage local authorities to come up with schemes and matched funding and to be ambitious. We will put our toe in the water in the first year but I hope to grow it and, with the support of colleagues in the House, to do for arts and culture what we have done successfully over the past number of years for sport.

See this speech in context