Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response, and I welcome the fact that it will be published this summer. I encourage the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to take ownership and to show an interest from the side of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is part of the implementation group, alongside the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin’s, Department. I therefore encourage the Minister and Minister of State to show an interest and to be ambitious.

I also want to acknowledge that there is a lack of research, which is something the roadmap could address. There is a lack of research and data on our creative and cultural industries. I refer to the European Commission documents, and in the most recent 2019 document, Ireland’s data often come from 2010. That is nine years out of date. We need to understand the value of our culture and creativity, and we need to take it seriously enough to track it on an ongoing basis. On the definition of the roadmap, in future, when we get this roadmap over the line, I would welcome having one for the cultural industries, for example, the music industry, festival companies, the work of artists, commercial galleries and publishers.

The final thing I will say, which is completely unrelated to this Commencement matter, is that we still do not have a digital legal deposit. It is the responsibility of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to archive the.ie domain so we do not lose our nation’s memory from the web.