Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if it has been brought to his attention that in 2008 Sligo County Council sought approval from his Department to the raising of a loan of €6.4 million for a new Sligo Museum and an extension to the Model Arts and Niland Gallery, that the total capital cost of the new Museum and extension to the Model and Niland Gallery was an estimated €23.5 million; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the balance of the capital funding was to be provided by way of a contribution of €2 million from the Model Niland Gallery, a grant of €4.6 million from the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism ACCESS I and II and Government grants of €10.5 million from the Gateway Innovation Fund and ACCESS III; if the loan was approved by his Department conditional on the balance of the funding being made available from the other sources; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12171/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The elected members of a local authority have direct responsibility in law for all reserved functions of the authority, which include adopting the annual budget and authorising borrowing, and are democratically accountable for all expenditure by the local authority. Section 106 of the Local Government Act 2001 requires that borrowings by a local authority are sanctioned by the appropriate Minister. Strategic investment in arts and cultural infrastructure is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.