If all of the plans and aspirations to update Dublin's cultural infrastructure actually materialise, the city will finally have facilities to match the needs of a modern European capital in this area, and to meet the expectations of the tourist who already has much to choose from in cultural honey-pots like Paris, London and other cities.
Several of the key projects, still very much in the early stages of planning, have been much vaunted: the new National Concert Hall (NCH) complex which received Government go-ahead earlier this year and the new Abbey Theatre in Dublin's docklands. Whether the docklands site provides what the Minister, John O'Donoghue, calls an "appropriate civic setting" is a moot point, while a relocation to the Carlton site on O'Connell Street would certainly have revitalised the city's main thoroughfare.
There are ambitions, too, to develop and renew in other quarters. The Museum of Modern Art has made a good case for new galleries to complement the Royal Hospital; the development of a more formalised cultural zone in the Parnell Square area has the backing of Dublin City Council; and a Daniel Libeskind-designed performance centre, again in the docklands, has been announced with some fanfare. There are also ambitions to create a children's museum as well as a city museum - the capital's history deserves such exposition in a proper setting.
Together, these projects add up to a significant improvement in the quantity and quality of Dublin's cultural space in the future. They also amount to a considerable commitment in funding. Currently the estimated NCH cost is about €175 million and the initial price-tag on the Abbey is over €150 million. If the actual building programme takes as long as seems probable, particularly with a public-private partnership being advocated, these costs could well escalate. What appears to be missing, and urgently needed, are more medium-capacity venues, as the outcry over the closure of the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre demonstrated.
Although the legacy of Celtic Tiger Ireland to future generations must be one that includes the kind of cultural landmarks envisaged in these grand designs, they will be useless without sufficient provision in the future for maintenance and staffing costs, and especially for those who will create the art - in all its forms - that will give meaning to these buildings. The Minister see a "golden period of construction where the arts is concerned" ahead of us. The current focus seems to be very much on capital spending, the provision of temples of art - and that is good. But the workers in art must be provided for too; otherwise the temples become monuments to folly.