I welcome the fact the Deputy acknowledged that this is not a responsibility for the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. As I said a while ago, the planning legislation - this is a planning matter and events are covered under event licences - is a matter for the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the first instance but supports from an enterprise point of view are a matter for the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. As I said a while ago, the Planning and Development Ac…

The Deputy is conflating as fact that all events are music events, which, of course, they are not. Some events are agricultural shows. Some events are religious events.

It is a matter for planning. Event licensing is Ronseal - it does what it says on the tin. It is event licensing. It is a matter for the local authority, in the first instance, to decide whether to grant or not grant an event licence. You have everything from sports to agricultural shows to music to everything else. As much as I am Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, I am not Minister with regard to papal visits, agricultural shows or anything of that nature.

The question that the Deputy asked was with regard to music performance but then he decided to go off on a tangent with regard to outdoor events.

The Deputy said-----

The Deputy said that you want all events consistent across the country and being handled by my Department. That is a physical impossibility because we are not a planning Department. As a former member of a local authority, the Deputy should know what the local authority does with regard to event licensing. Removing a power from a local authority would go down like a lead balloon with the Deputy's colleagues.

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an seans seo cúpla freagra a thabhairt trí Ghaeilge i rith Sheachtain na Gaeilge. Mar atá leagtha amach i gclár an Rialtais, creideann an Rialtas go bhfuil an cultúr agus na healaíona riachtanach do leas an phobail. Tá líonra de bhonneagar cultúrtha ar fud na tíre agus an tromlach faoi úinéireacht na n-údarás áitiúil. Cuireann údaráis áitiúla agus an Chomhairle Ealaíon tacaíocht bhliantúil ar fáil don bhonneagar ealaíon agus cultúir seo, lena n-áirítear tacaíochtaí reatha a chabh…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Bhí cruinniú agam um thráthnóna leis na hoifigigh sa Roinn maidir leis an scéim de €3 mhilliún atá curtha ar fáil do Chomhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath. Space to create an t-ainm atá ar an scéim. Tá sé an-tábhachtach dom go mbeadh an t-airgead seo á chur ar fáil don chomhairle cathrach go luath agus go mbeidh an chomhairle ag teacht go dtí an Roinn le plean chun úsáid a bhaint as an méid airgid sin. Tá súil agam go mbeidh mé in ann teacht ar ais go dtí an Teach go luath chun cu…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an méid tacaíochta a thug sé dom maidir leis an scéim phíolótach basic income for the arts. Tá sé an-tábhachtach dom go bhfuil sé seo críochnaithe go dtí seo agus go mbeidh muid in ann an scéim a chur i bhfeidhm arís i rith an tsamhraidh. Maidir leis an scéim nua eile atá i mbuiséad 2026 a labhair an Teachta faoi, beidh mé in ann, le cúnamh Dé, teacht ar ais go dtí an Teach go luath leis an scéim seo. Má tá deis ag an Teachta cabhair a thabhairt dom chun an scéim seo a bhaint ama…

As outlined in the programme for Government, the Government believes that culture and the arts are essential to a well-rounded society, providing opportunities for education, expression and community engagement. The programme sets out an ambitious range of measures encompassing support for professional arts practice, investment in our national cultural institutions, the promotion of the arts internationally, preservation and presentation of our national cultural heritage, as well as deepening cultural connections a…

Deputy Butterly will be glad to hear that, over the last couple of weeks, I have been dealing with a town of culture initiative in the Department. We are at a preliminary stage of drawing up what it would look like and how we would award it. I envisage a competitive process through the local authorities, with local authorities putting forward nominees to be the town of culture for a fixed period of time. From that, supports would be able to be derived from the Department. I also envisage that the town of culture de…

I am sure the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach, Deputy Keira Keogh, would have something different to say for Mayo, Westport, Castlebar and Ballina, as others would for all stations between Mayo and Dublin. I know Deputy Butterly is a strong advocate for the County Louth towns. Why would she not be? However, we will have to have a competitive process. I envisage it will involve the local authorities being asked to put forward proposals, which will have to be independently assessed and verified. Obvious, the winners will be …

I acknowledge Deputy O'Meara for raising this matter. These are important workers who have given a huge amount of service to the State through the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, An Post, Eircom and, latterly, Eir, which is now a private company. The Department of communications has signed off on its element of this. The other element is with the Department of public expenditure and reform. We can provide a more comprehensive reply by email later on.

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. The public accounts committee published a report last November in respect of the 2023 appropriation account for Vote 33, which was the then Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, together with the 2023 financial statement of the Arts Council and the National Gallery of Ireland. In the report, the committee identified governance and oversight concerns across the Department and its agencies, including the Arts Council and the National Gal…

What the Deputy has seen from me so far is that once I become aware of the issue with the Arts Council and the issues in the National Gallery, I dealt with them, and I did so fairly comprehensively. The report on the Arts Council was published today. It runs to 245 pages and contains well in excess of 190 recommendations. There are recommendations for all Departments, including my Department, State bodies and the Arts Council. Regarding the issue with the National Gallery, we dealt with that. The X-ray scanner went…

I hope the Deputy had a chance to look at the report. It took me from 5 January until today to get in under the bonnet of it. Not all 149 recommendations are necessarily attributable to the Arts Council alone. There is an awful lot in the report from which other agencies can learn as well. Similar issues have arisen in other bodies, as I know from my time on the public accounts committee. One of the greatest learnings of the report is that small bodies such as the Arts Council sometimes expect to deliver once-in-a-…

In February 2025, I ordered an external review of the governance and organisational culture in the Arts Council, following the disclosure of a loss on a failed €6.675 million IT project in the Arts Council's annual report for 2023. With the agreement of the Government, I established an expert advisory committee comprising Professor Niamh Brennan, Dr. Margaret Cullen and John McCarthy to deliver the review. The committee has concluded its work and today I brought its review to Government, which approved its publicat…

Deputy Ó Snodaigh has raised a very important issue. The formulation, compilation and completion of the report was done independently but prior to the conclusion of the report the chapters relating to each individual entity were circulated to those entities for their observations. I did not receive the final report until 5 January and I published it today. I have accepted Professor Brennan's recommendations together with the committee in full and I thank the committee for the work it has done. As they say, it has d…

I think Deputy Ó Snodaigh would agree with me that the Arts Council has gone through a fairly tumultuous period of change in the recent past, and I acknowledge the role that Dr. Moling Ryan has played as an interim director. I have no plans in the immediate future to do any further chopping and changing. I want to leave things bed down and get a genuine schedule and timetable for the change management that is now required to go through. There will also be legislative requirements and Professor Niamh Brennan referre…

I want to put on the record my disgust at the type of material that is being created and shared on social media. It is abhorrent. My first concern is with those affected, in particular women, young children and young people in general. The sharing of non-consensual intimate images is illegal under the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, also known as Coco's Law; and the generation or distribution of any child sexual abuse material is illegal under the Child Trafficking and Pornography …