Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)

This has been a very helpful debate and some very good ideas have emerged from it. I sincerely thank the Senators for bringing them forward. I got a number of good ideas which I will discuss.

The issue of the national cultural institutions was raised. I am still waiting for proposals from my officials who have been in constant communication with the various national cultural institutions. They meet on a regular basis. When the public service reform agenda was announced last November our Department set up a reform office and a reform committee. It has been working on that since then. Most of these public servants, from the Secretary General down, would have been in contact with all the cultural institutions over the years and people would be very familiar with each other and know each other personally. They have been working together in providing funding for the cultural institutions over the last ten years, so it is not a case that these people are strangers. Very close friendships would have developed over the years between officials from my Department and the national cultural institutions.

It must also be said that the Department's officials have been asked to come up with recommendations, but they are as sensitive as I am to the value of national cultural institutions. Whatever will emerge from this review will, hopefully, strengthen those institutions. I am very much in favour of the arm's length approach, wherever possible. I recall that when the Arts Act was being debated in 2003, and Senator Mac Conghail played a very crucial role in that legislation as he was an adviser to the Minister, I argued that case strenuously. I held up the debate for hours when people would have preferred it to finish but I believe in the autonomy and curatorial independence of the national cultural institutions. I wish to make that clear.