It might be useful to the Deputy if I explained the process we are following. To give an idea of the great interest there was when we placed the advertisements, we received 170 applications for projects valued at £87 million. The amount available is £19.7 million plus contributions from local authorities etc. The way in which it has been operating — and it enables people to understand how the decisions have been taken — is that all the applications were referred to the Arts Council to see where they fitted in, in terms of an arts assessment in the context of the plan. Bord Fáilte, on an agency basis for my Department, looked at the financial viability of each project. In addition, a committee which I established, and which the House also wanted, in relation to regional balance vetted each project in terms of its regional significance. The next round, after these eight, will be announced in the month of May.
I take the Deputy's point because it is important to assure him and the House that major national and cultural institutions provision in the centre of Dublin cannot be taken as providing automatically for the areas he describes. They have made a good case in their own right. They have completed the process and they should be included in the May evaluation. Later in the summer we will advertise again to see other projects that might have missed the closing date in relation to the first advertisement.
On the Deputy's other points I take his concerns very seriously. Giving access to people of all ages, and to people in age groups that perhaps have been underprovided for in the past, is a factor which must and will be borne in mind.