I warmly welcome the Government's arts capital investment fund announced in budget 2027. My concern is for the towns and villages that do not have existing entertainment venues. I feel they are simply being excluded. Arklow, for example, is a case study for lack of investment. It has a proud tradition of arts, music and culture but it has no entertainment venue. It does not even have a community hall to hold such events. Do not get me wrong: Arklow will be transformed in the next decade with huge investment in the green energy park, offshore wind turbines and great progress on the greenway. However, as it stands we do not have entertainment venues. If there were to be a concert tonight in Arklow, a town of 14,000 people, the school, the church or the local hotel would have to be used. It is simply wrong. It is a missed opportunity. The lack of investment in the town in the past ten years has simply been deplorable.

I thank Deputy Brennan for raising this issue. I am very fond of Arklow and have been there on a number of occasions. The wastewater treatment plant is the latest investment we officially opened. It has a beautiful design, which received some celebrated colourful coverage which I cannot repeat in the House. I take the Deputy's point. There is an arts capital investment fund. It is a new €6 million scheme that delivers on the Government's commitment to explore a dedicated capital scheme for the arts and cultural facilities. There are three categories. I wonder whether it could be of some help to the local authority if there was a particular initiative coming from Wicklow County Council for the Arklow area that we could respond to. If the local authority could come forward with a specific proposal, I would be hopeful that the Government might be in a position to respond.