Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Their plays always concerned a very good person, who was new to a position, an eager, enthusiastic, talented, aware and energetic person, who was brought down by a question of morality. In the 16th century this was usually in the guise of a cardinal or a pope, but of course nothing has changed. This great morality hid behind arrases, large stage curtains, with a big sword and picked off the young, energetic, new, alive, able person, bit by bit. There are many moralists like that around the House and, rightly so, they have argued about the appointment of Mr. McNulty. However, they have tried to do what Yeats said was impossible, "to separate the dancer from the dance". They say "I am arguing for the arts, I am not making it personal." That is amateur, lacking in real truth, and so full of false modesty that it would find a better home in the town hall in Tulsk; no harm to Tulsk.

I wish the Minister well in her new portfolio. It is new for her and she should be allowed to begin it. The way to give it the greatest curtain call ever is to demand that the arts get their rightful funding, that they get their deserved financing, that they get major new capital funding to acknowledge, and this must be acknowledged, a politically realigned belief in their power. The message to the Minister is not just to leave arts funding uncut in this budget, but to renew and increase it, demonstrating a new, realigned belief in the Minister's power and the power of the arts. That is her brief, that is my gift to her and that is her real way forward for the entire arts community. I know she can get it and I know that she can do it.