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

Considering the way in which we address that funding challenge for the future cannot be avoided and we are determined to work with our cultural institutions in this challenge. The process of reform in which we are engaged is not about diminishing them, it is about the long-term survival of these institutions. In this challenge, they must work together, share common operational services and draw on shared support services. Our national cultural institutions are capable of doing that.

When I first came to this House as Minister last September, I said that my objective in Government is to make the arts and culture part of our national script, to make them a central and essential part of the narrative about the character of a new, different, changed and better Ireland. That remains my objective. Of the many things we excel at in this country, the arts are foremost. In fact, our arts and culture practitioners are world class. As I said previously in the Dáil, however, one of the things we could do better is to have a calm and level-headed debate about the future direction of institutions that are funded by the taxpayer and are in place to serve the nation.

I know these institutions well. I have engaged with them throughout my life.