Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Martin Mansergh, for attending to answer my question on arts and education. I must declare an interest in that I am a musician. I was chairman of the Oireachtas arts committee when the Arts Bill was going through the Lower House. At the time, there was considerable debate about traditional music and the need within the arts to examine the role of traditional arts. As as result of lobbying at that time, a decision was taken to form sub-committees on a rolling basis to examine the Arts Bill for issues considered to be of importance. The first sub-committee formed dealt with the traditional arts and yielded a report that resulted in approximately €3 million for the sector at that time. Like some other people, I put a strong case for a sub-committee specifically for arts in education because I believed fundamentally in the role of music not necessarily to produce musicians or an audience, which are important in themselves, but its role for children up to six years of age. During that period, people's language, co-ordination and rhythm skills develop. Children learn to work together, to listen and develop all these various skills through music and by engaging in music, especially at that young age. Music can yield personal development for our young people and leave them in a certain position when they reach primary school. They may not necessarily be the most gifted of children musically but their speech and ability to move around physically can be a good deal better than it would otherwise be. Perhaps with continued investment in arts in education we could stop the difficulties of dyslexia, dyspraxia, Fragile X syndrome and all the other issues that arise and with which we try to deal years later when children are in their early teens and possibly beyond help. Such children may not have benefited from intervention through the use of the arts.

I am acutely aware that a long battle was waged for the concept of a sub-committee for arts in education. When people involved in the arts seek funding for activities in school they are informed that because it is in school it is a matter for the Department of Education and Skills. When these people approach that Department, they are informed it is a matter for the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport or the Arts Council . This was the idea behind trying to pull together the Arts Council and the Department of Education and Skills, to ensure one body was in charge of this concept, to ensure a co-ordinated way forward could be established and that a path could be clearly defined.

I refer to many people who have approached me, including the cross-Border orchestra. Finally, we managed to secure some money for marching bands but there are little orchestras throughout the country getting by a little at a time and trying to make ends meet.

One problem we found with community funding is that everything is piecemeal and exists in a very haphazard form. There is no security of tenure and, therefore, there is no security in terms of good projects for the future. I believed the role of the sub-committee on arts in education was to examine the more formal driving of arts in education and to lend structure to the work being done on the ground. There is much good practice in place but people find it very difficult to make ends meet because they do not have central funding and there is no basic plan. They are trying to fit something into the children's lives because nothing is there formally. It comes down to a very simple point at this stage. The late Séamus Brennan was the last Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism whom I approached on this issue. That shows it was some time ago. At that stage, I believed the report of the sub-committee on the arts in education had been completed and ready for publication but it has never been published since. I can only imagine there is some funding implication for any recommendations: that is the only reason why it would be held back.

If we are serious about creating employment and fostering entrepreneurial spirit we must recognise the entrepreneurship, creativity and critical thinking that comes from the arts. Sometimes, we are too interested in focusing on maths, reading, writing and arithmetic and we do not realise a little detour via the arts can make one more competent and creative, either as an employer or an employee. This is why I continue to persist in raising this issue and continue to try to get the arts fully focused.

I realise I am speaking to the converted when I address the Minister of State, Deputy Martin Mansergh, but we must get a profile at Cabinet which recognises the strong need to find the money to implement the report. However, first I seek the publication of the report, simply to establish how the plan hangs together and whether the issues we regarded as important during the deliberations of the sub-committee have been recognised in the report. I put a simple question to the Minister for State: when will it be published? Further questions will evolve as a result of that question. How and when will the implementation of the report be funded? The publication of this plan is long overdue and the delay takes away from the value of the Arts Bill, which was passed some years ago.