Saturday 6 September 2014

An open-letter to former Labour member of Galway City Council Nuala Nolan: challenge to publicly debate the issues



An open-letter to Nuala Nolan, (former Labour member of Galway City Council)

Dear Nuala,

You have made a public statement (via your Facebook page) which in my view in effect advocates less spending on the Arts, particularly in the context of hospitals where Arts and Health initiatives have been increasingly popular. You have gone further in additional comments on your own Facebook post and clearly said that you think that money which should have been spent on patients' treatment, is being spent on the arts.

A huge amount of good work has been done in the Arts and Health area with, on the scale of things, very little money. I have considerable experience of this myself, having work as Writer-in-Residence with Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust since 2007.

I think a full public debate of these issues would be beneficial.

I would be willing to publicly debate this and all related issues with you at a time and location that suited you. Interested members of the public would be invited to attend and ask questions. I am sure that we could between us find a neutral chairperson.

I very much hope that you will take up my invitation to publicly debate these issues.

Sincerely,

Kevin Higgins