Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 December 2009
2 Deputy Mary Upton asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on the impact the cuts announced in budget 2010 will have on the areas of arts, sport and tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47991/09]
View answerFunding for my Department for 2010 is €501 million, a decrease of 7% on the 2009 figure. The tourism services budget for 2010 is over €155 million, representing an increase of 2% on 2009. The enhanced allocation for tourism for 2010 is clear recognition by Government of the important role that the tourism and hospitality sector will play in Ireland's economic recovery. A total of €22 million has been allocated for capital investment in tourism product development, a threefold increase over the 2009 level. This investment will be focussed on completing the upgrading of some major tourism attractions, developing a select number of new visitor attractions, improving infrastructure for recreational cycling, walking and water-based activities and local heritage attractions.
The 2010 allocation for the Tourism Marketing Fund is over €44 million. This will enable the level and value of investment in overseas marketing of Ireland to be maintained in real terms in 2010 as recommended in the report of the tourism renewal group. Funding to arts, culture and film for 2010 is €166 million. Within this, I am pleased to have secured over €69 million for the Arts Council which will continue to sustain the country's main arts organisations, keep regional arts and theatre venues open and support local festivals and touring initiatives.
Funding for the Irish Film Board is €19 million. The section 481 tax relief scheme for investment in film and TV production is maintained until at least 2012, underpinning the Government's commitment to the importance of our indigenous Irish film and audiovisual sector. Culture Ireland's allocation for 2010 is over €4 million. Culture Ireland and Tourism Ireland have intensified joint planning on cross-promotions in the cultural tourism field. Capital funding for arts infrastructure has been consolidated in my Department and all major arts capital projects will be completed as will regional capital projects to which commitments have been made. Day-to-day funding for the national cultural institutions is maintained at or above 2007 levels and their capital funding is maintained at 2009 levels.
The Deputy will be aware that, at the Global Irish Economic Forum held in Farmleigh in September, there was wide acknowledgement of the importance of culture in promoting Ireland abroad and developing a unique brand for the country in new markets. Internationally, the creative economy is moving centre stage and creativity is seen as a crucial bedrock, underpinning our knowledge economy. I am pleased that these significant levels of funding have been secured to support the arts next year.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House.
A total of €48 million has been provided for the sports capital programme in 2010. This will ensure that commitments arising in 2010 from previous allocations under the sports capital programme will continue to be met. With regard to the local authority swimming pools programme, the allocation of €7.5 million in 2010 will be sufficient to meet commitments arising in 2010 under the current round of the programme. Funding of €49.8 million has been provided to the Irish Sports Council for 2010 and is a significant investment by Government to enable this important agency maintain existing programmes and build on recent significant progress in all areas, including local sports partnerships, Buntús, women in sport, older people and sport, youth field sports and the high performance programme.
Due to the economic constraints, it is not possible to move forward with the main phase 1 of the national sports campus project at this time. In the meantime, however, €3 million capital has been provided in my Department's 2010 provision for the refurbishment of the former Marine Institute building at Abbotstown which will be used as a headquarters for national governing bodies of sport.
An estimated 27,000 jobs are supported by both the horse and greyhound industry in Ireland and significant inward investment is attracted to the country. Taking account of the need to continue to support both industries, €59.3 million is being allocated by Government to the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund in 2010.
I believe that the importance of the arts, sport and tourism sectors to the country are reflected in the commitments contained in the renewed programme for Government and in the funding secured under the budget for my Department's activities over the course of 2010. I look forward to a number of exciting developments next year, including the completion of two major projects — the national conference centre and the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road — and the continuation of significant pieces of work which are ongoing at present regarding the new National Concert Hall project, the assessment of the GPO complex as a possible location for the Abbey Theatre and the creation of a new national opera company.
I thank the Minister for his reply. I have talked to people in the arts, sport and tourism sectors who feel that the wool has been pulled over their eyes. They were expecting such bad news. This is true of the budget in general, and it is the feedback on it. When they hear, for example, that the Arts Council is only to have a 13% cut for the entire year, they believe this is not so bad. I do not agree with that.
How much will the Kennedy homestead memorial project cost, for example, and when is construction expected to begin? Is it a matter for the OPW or the Departments of Arts, Sport and Tourism? Where will the funding come from to man these capital projects because while the tourism percentage is up by 2%, virtually everything else is decreased in this regard apart from the capital budget. That means many more buildings will appear, including the Kennedy homestead development, so where is the current funding to come from to support those projects?
The Kennedy project the Deputy refers to is an OPW proposal. It was announced by the Minister for Finance in the budget and the OPW is part of the Department of Finance. The resources are secured and will not be coming out of the budgets here. As the Deputy can see, we have an substantial number of projects in place that we want to complete. We shall seek to secure new projects, not all of them necessarily requiring current funding from our perspective. Many of them are well able to provide their own funding, as, for example, different projects in the tourism sector. It is correct that some are State operated, but some are managed by local authorities in many different areas around the country. I accept these are challenging times in terms of current funding for anything, regardless of whether it is national or local government.
After years of growth and enormous capital provision around the country, I did not want some of these facilities closing down, so I decided that no matter how difficult it would be, we must try to sustain these centres and keep them open, at a minimum, while maintaining as much employment as possible within them. I am sure the level of activity is not as high as they would like and I accept that if they had more money, they would do more. However, the alternative would not be acceptable.
I have a few comments in regard to sports as well, although I have a final comment to make in respect of arts. Multi-annual funding is one of the features of great importance, particularly for the Arts Council, in terms of being able to engage people, for example, for opera singing and so on. The council has to engage people, perhaps two years in advance, and it cannot do this without multi-annual funding. There is no word about this anywhere in the budget and it is something about which the council would like to have heard.
There is no national sports campus and no new local authority swimming pool. All of this has closed since 2000, so overall the Minister's comments would be appreciated in terms of what is happening with sport because, again, the budget is significantly down in terms of 2008 funding.
As the Deputy is aware, the response from the Irish Sports Council and many of the NGBs around the country has been extremely positive, in the context of the budget, with the money that has been allocated——
They have been softened up.
——which, of course, has been substantially increased in recent years. Most of the sports council's facilities will remain in place, and this is most important. We have completed an significant amount of capital investments throughout the country in recent years, as the Deputy has indicated. She mentioned the swimming pool programme and five are still under completion out of the 45 we built around the country. It is not as if all development has stopped. The Deputy is right, and I would love to have an ACCESS programme opening again for the arts, and ACCESS 2 for the swimming pool programme, but, again, that is not available to me this year. Choices had to be made and, as I have made clear to the Deputy, whether it is arts, sport or tourism, I wanted to sustain employment as much as possible and market all these facilities as best I can, with good budgets. That is what is being done at home and abroad and as things recover.
If I was to accept multi-annual funding based on current circumstances, it would only be going one way, downhill. We all hope, given the quality of the budget as presented, that we get to mid-year when Ireland will begin to see the benefits of an upturn. If that happens, we should be in a stronger position to look at the funding available in the years ahead.
