Helen Keogh
Ceist:47 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the changes, if any, in funding policies to interpretative centres in view of emerging information of falling attendances during the past year. [4684/95]
Written Answers. - Interpretative Centres Funding.
I assume that the Deputy is referring to a recent article in a Sunday newspaper which stated that the numbers visiting Office of Public Works visitor centres are falling. The figures quoted in that article for 1994 were those for the period up until the end of September which have since been adjusted to take account of the full year.
The actual position is that, while all these visitor centres experience fluctuations in visitor numbers on a yearly basis, there was an increase of 5.6 per cent in the overall number of paying visitors to these centres in 1994 as compared with 1993. The figure for 1994 was 1,957,000 compared with 1,854,000 for 1993. Seven new sites were opened to the public in 1994 and accounted for around 50,000 visitors.