Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism if the construction of a new Opera House in Wexford will be sanctioned; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28087/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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For 50 years the Wexford Festival Opera, WFO, has been a key event in the cultural life of Ireland and has won extensive international acclaim. Founded in 1951, the WFO specialise in discovering neglected opera pieces. It runs each October and produces three major operas at the Theatre Royal. The existing Theatre Royal is unsuitable for use by the festival into the future. Accordingly, the Wexford Festival Opera proposes to carry out a major redevelopment of the theatre. To this end over the past number of years it has been acquiring sites around the theatre to allow redevelopment to go ahead and now has the space necessary for redevelopment. Design work for the redevelopment has been carried out by OPW and planning permission is in place, and the OPW has agreed to take the project to tender stage on its behalf.

I believe that this is a worthwhile development, of immense importance to the cultural life of Ireland and of very particular significance to Wexford and its hinterland. The availability of Exchequer co-funding for the construction phase of this project in under active consideration in the context of the 2006-10 capital envelopes. In that context, it is helpful that progress is being made by the festival in securing commitments to matching private investment.

On a personal level, I take this opportunity to pay tribute once again to the recently deceased chief executive of the Wexford Festival Opera and deputy chair of the Arts Council, Mr. Jerome Hynes. Jerome's personal drive and determination were in large part responsible for bringing this development to the stage to where it has now advanced. He is an immense loss to his family and friends, to Wexford and to the arts in all of Ireland. Ar dheis lámh Dé go raibh a anam dílis.