"Using the visual arts and sculpture [in hospitals] is good for families and visitors but, most importantly, it is good for the patients.

"There are 2,000 people working in Waterford Regional Hospital, and patients as well; maybe 5 per cent would ever go to an art gallery or a museum, and obviously the patients can't go, so we are bringing art to them. We can't quantify [the benefits] yet, but we have qualitative evidence. The key word is wellbeing.

"There are different types of [artistic intervention]. We have moved on from using just the visual arts as stimulation, to music therapists to work with psychiatric patients or children who are emotionally unstable.

"Then there is art as a form of active enjoyment. For example, in the geriatric wards and long-term-stay wards, there are few visitors in the daytime, so we fill the day with music and art.

"We are funded by voluntary contributions and [bodies like] the Arts Council, the Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism, and Fás, rather than the Department of Health. The difficulty with the health system is the sense of priorities: more beds, more technology, are more essential than art, so we have always sought funds elsewhere. But I would like to see the Department of Health and the HSE accept art alongside radiology or physiotherapy; to see that the arts are needed in the hospital and to make a budget for it."