2. Deputy Aidan Farrelly asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if he will provide further details in respect of his plans to review spending by bodies under his remit and-or aegis. [9994/25]

Sentiment score: 0.16

First, I take the opportunity to wish the Minister well and congratulate him on his new role. I ask him to provide further details in respect of his plans to review spending by bodies under his remit or aegis.

Sentiment score: 0.67

There is a bit of a smoke and mirrors effort happening here; a bit of a damage limitation stunt. I appreciate what the Minister has inherited here is a little bit of a mess but the reality is that his Department already knows what is being spent. That is fair to say. What we have seen though, with both of the incidents the Minister cited, is an abject failure in terms of oversight in governance. I am really intrigued to see how deep he is willing to go in this regard. Will he get into the weeds of writing to a national governing body, such as the FAI, for example, asking it to write to the Kildare and district underage league, KDUL, asking for reports? What does that mechanism look like? That is a really interesting point. We have seen reports that the Arts Council flagged this issue three years ago, so there were no question marks over the fact that there were concerns about this many years ago, but the Department was not in a position to provide support. When we see a shortfall in reporting mechanisms within the Department, is it not meritable now to look at what is going on in the Department as much as what is going on within the agencies?

Sentiment score: 0.05

We all know, having worked in different sectors, that extensive reporting mechanisms are in place already. If we draw down public funds, we have to report at every step of that process. We know that, for example, as regards the IT system, there are what we call decision gates at various stages of expenditure, whereby organisations have to report that back. As for my concern about the committee to which the Minister referred, I would love to see the terms of reference for the committee. Are we going to look only at the responsibility of the Arts Council in this example or are we going to forensically examine, if it was identified that there were issues here but that the Department in and of itself was not in a position to support the organisation, where else that is happening? That is a crucial bit. As regards that root-and-branch review, will the Minister put on the record of the House today that the arts sector will not suffer financially as a result of what has happened in recent months? That is really important. There was concern out there that the very valuable work undertaken by artists throughout this country will suffer because of this. Will the Minister put on record that that will not happen?

Sentiment score: 0.19