Arts Centres
Seanad Éireann — 2025-12-10
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Charlie McConalogue (FF), Donegal

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Black as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a thabhairt chun cinn.
This Government places really strong value on culture and the arts sector. As outlined in the programme for Government, we recognise that the arts are essential to a well-rounded society, providing opportunities for education, expression and community engagement.
As the Seanadóir is aware, the Complex is a multidisciplinary arts and creative venue in Dublin's north inner city governed by a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. The Complex has been leasing its building, a former fruit warehouse off Capel Street, from a private landlord on a site ring-fenced for redevelopment. It is my understanding that the centre has been in negotiations with the developer for a partnership in which the Complex would be given the opportunity to buy back two floors. The Complex CLG has in principle secured a loan of €1.5 million towards the purchase.
I understand that the Complex has stated that talks took place with the Department of Finance, the Department of public expenditure and reform and Dublin City Council to assist with the finance of this offer, after an initial business case undertaken by Forvis Mazars. However, the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport was not part of this engagement.
The Department provides grants as a contribution towards maintaining and enhancing existing arts and culture facilities but does not provide funding for the purchase of property. The provision of local arts and culture infrastructure is a matter in the first instance for local authorities. Officials from the Department met with the chair of the Complex and other members of the team in December of last year and advised them of this position. Further communication in June reiterated the position. In any event, no funding was sought from this Department for the purchase of the building by the Complex. Any grant for refurbishment support would require chargeable title to be in place.
I understand that the Complex has been given notice to quit on 14 January next. I am sure that this must be a very distressing time for the staff, the board and all the artists who use the Complex regularly.
While I further understand that negotiations are still ongoing with the developer, the CEO, Vanessa Fielding, has written to the Department advising that the Complex will look for a meanwhile space to move into should there not be a positive outcome to those discussions. While the Department does not own any properties and is therefore not in a position to assist the Complex in this regard, it is the Department's hope that Dublin City Council may be able to assist it.
The Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, and I are acutely aware of the pressures artists and creatives face in finding suitable workspaces, especially here in our capital city. The lack of space has been a significant barrier for artists, limiting their ability to create and to exhibit work.
The Department recognises that local authorities can play a vital role in delivering the infrastructure necessary to provide a number of artists' workspaces nationwide. That is why the Department allocated €3 million in funding in 2023 to Space to Create, an initiative that aims to provide up to 60 artist workspaces in Dublin city, in partnership with Dublin City Council.
In addition, the Department launched the artists' workspaces scheme in June 2024. This is a €6 million pilot capital funding scheme for local authorities to increase the provision of artists' workspaces across the country. The primary focus of this pilot scheme is to provide funding to local authorities to enable them to provide additional capacity and availability of artist workspaces in their regions on a sustainable basis. Local authorities are invited to propose projects which can accommodate and address the demand for artist workspaces in their regions and produce workspaces that are fit for purpose, design focused and accessible. Capital grants up to a maximum of €300,000 are available to densely populated local authority areas, with capital grants up to a maximum of €150,000 available to remaining local authorities. With regard to both schemes, I am aware of a number of long-term artists' spaces that are being put in place.
I understand that this is a particularly distressing time for the Complex. I sincerely hope that a satisfactory resolution can be reached.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-12-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-10