Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. Perhaps the Heritage Council might like to do a project in the basement of Leinster House at the banking inquiry because we seem to have been there for quite a while and we will be for quite a while ahead.As Senator Barrett rightly says, it is indeed a great pleasure to be in the light, to see the world outside and to celebrate all the activities in the Minister of State's Department by supporting this motion. It is good to hear the Minister of State being so strong about the fact that we do not want to see people having to pay for admission to our own cultural institutions. This is really important and it is good to hear. Our culture is who we are and it is in our DNA. As Yeats might have said, it is in the deep heart's core; it is part of everything we are as a nation and as individuals.

I refer to the capital investment projects, including the ongoing project in the National Gallery of Ireland. The IMMA project is almost at a conclusion, and I look forward to seeing that space when it opens. I refer to the announcement that UCD's Newman House on St. Stephen's Green is to become the Ulysses Centre. That is a particularly lovely project, although it will take some years, which will celebrate Irish writing. It is called, appropriately, after James Joyce's famous work. There is much activity in this regard. People may think culture is just about the music and the poetry, but we need to have the infrastructure to support it.

In the 21st century, people's expectations have grown. Visitors from other countries expect beautiful cultural centres, as they see in other countries. We have some beautiful buildings in Dublin, as Senator Barrett highlighted, and also around the country. It is very important to be ready to add to them, to restore them and to recreate them. This is an important remit of the Department.

I assume I will be expected to talk about Yeats 2015, so I will not disappoint. At the halfway mark of the year, I thank the Minister of State and his Department for having the foresight to make the leap to support this unprecedented project, because we have celebrated one of our writers for a whole year and allowed the contemporary cultural wealth of the country to surround itself in that reconnection with Yeats. I can say without contradiction that so far it has been going very well, with projects coming on stream all the time. Every week, several new projects come to us that were not originally part of what we had set out to achieve. This shows that the project is bearing fruit. People are looking to reconnect and they are inspired by Yeats, as he would have wanted them to be. The idea behind the year was exactly that: to try to reconnect and to encourage people to stand proud and to celebrate Yeats and, of course, others of our great writers. However, in this, his 150th birthday year, he is our focus, and as he is our first Nobel Prize winner, that is entirely justified.

We are looking forward to the Yeats Day festival at the heart of the event in Sligo on 13 June. We have a terrific programme, including the coming together for the first time of the national poets of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, England and Ireland at the Poet Laureate and National Poets event. Delightful to say, they are all women, but that is just a coincidence. This is the first time they have come to Ireland, and it is also the first time these posts have all been held by women. We will have lovely small events, including events for three-year-old children, and the Poet Laureate reciting poetry. This is all happening on the same weekend, along with other activities such as a sea trail walk, a wine and sausage event and beautiful music. The fleadh musicians will be there and we will have a street festival. There will be wonderful new works on display at The Model, including the Psychic Lighthouse exhibition. There will also be a candlelit salon with all sorts of speakers, including Conor Brady, who will talk about his novels in which he has included W. B. Yeats as a character, which will be entertaining. Like all our great cultural ambassadors, Yeats has that capacity to connect people.

I note that the Dublin dance festival will celebrate with the Bastard Amber project in the Abbey Theatre, also inspired by Yeats. "The Only Jealousy of Emer" is part of the Dublin literary festival, with a lovely photograph on the front of The Irish Timesyesterday to celebrate it. Finally, I cannot not sit down without mentioning Prince Charles and his visit to the west of Ireland next week. Yeats will very much form part of his journey between Galway and Sligo. There will be Yeats in Galway and Yeats in Sligo. It is really important that we connect to tell the story of Yeats across that coast and also to link it with Dublin.

There is also a lot happening around the world. The Minister of State is aware that his colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade have been very supportive. Events are taking place in more than 25 countries to celebrate this special year. We have shown that we have the capacity to stand on the global stage and to punch well above our weight in terms of our cultural capabilities. This is at the core of the work of the Department. As Senator van Turnhout said, amid all the dilemmas and the challenges we face in terms of storing artefacts from our archaeological heritage, we have so much to celebrate and so much of which to be proud. This is what gives us all the reason to keep going and to proceed into the future. We are looking forward very much to 2016 and to the Minister of State's Department's input. I note that much work is already being carried out in this regard.

I am looking forward to the Seanad's celebration of Yeats. The House of Lords is having an event two days after Yeats Day. I talked to the Speaker of the House of Lords, who is a fan of Yeats and has read a Yeats poem for us. She is delighted to host an event, and I know this House is also planning an event.

We must keep the arts at the centre of everything we do. Our culture is who we are and why we are. The Minister of State is always afforded a warm welcome in this House. I look forward to seeing the details of the 2025 plan. It is very encouraging to see a long-term plan beginning to emerge. The Minister of State has faced many challenges in recent years and I thank him for his efforts.