Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The best gig I was ever at in the National Concert Hall was Frances Black - I am serious about that. I welcome the Minister to the House. It was a pleasure recently to visit Robert Read and the team in the National Concert Hall and to get a tour of the site. There is so much potential there, particularly for the secondary venue in addition to the main auditorium. It is the type of size that Dublin seriously needs. Vicar Street has a 1,500 standing capacity but when we go smaller than that, there is really only the Button Factory and Whelan's. There is absolutely a need and I think the National Concert Hall is the place that could fulfil that need, particularly if, as the Minister said, it wants to be at the heart of music and if it wants to be the primary music institution in the State.

Obviously, we will be supporting the Bill. It is a bit of a shame that the orchestra could not reach its full potential in RTÉ, and there are reasons for that. It will cost the same amount, no doubt, but I welcome the fact it will now have a full complement of members. I know from some colleagues in the Musicians Union of Ireland of the issues over the years, and the full complement of members is certainly one issue, as well as the instruments, as the Minister has stated. I commend her on that.

I welcome the capital development. I would ask if the figures identified in the national development plan and Project Ireland 2040 need to take account of inflation, and the Minister might comment on that point.

I want to flag that there are concerns around some of the events like the Haunted Dancehall event that took place in the National Concert Hall under the national cultural institutions licence, as well the Pride events in Collins Barracks. I commend the National Museum of Ireland on using the cultural institutions licence for public events. There is concern that the proposals in the Department of Justice’s Sale of Alcohol Bill on the cultural amenities licence would not improve on the national cultural institutions licence, and that we would be essentially taking away some of the benefits of that licence if we were to go down the road of the cultural amenities licence. I would welcome the Minister's comments on that. We would all support more use of that national cultural institutions licence. It was great to see the concert hall use it recently but there are concerns about the changes to legislation.

Sin é. I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I welcome the Bill, which we will be supporting.