Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 June 2012
23 Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his plans to better support arts and heritage initiatives in rural areas; and the percentage of the overall budget allocated to developing rural arts and heritage. [27106/12]
View answerThe Government's priorities for the arts are set out in the Programme for Government. Responsibility for the promotion of the arts at all levels throughout the country is devolved primarily to the Arts Council. The Council is a statutory body, funded by my Department, and independent in its day-to-day operations, including in relation to its funding decisions.
The Deputy may be aware that I recently launched The Philanthropy Leverage Initiative. This pilot initiative, established with funding of €230,000 for 2012, is designed to encourage philanthropic sponsorship and endowment funding of the arts from private sources. The scheme aims to promote support for the arts from private sources and to unlock multiples of the funding put up by the taxpayer. The Philanthropy Leverage Initiative will provide an incentive to arts and culture organisations to seek new and multi-annual relationships with sponsors which deliver private sector financial support, thereby increasing overall funding available to the arts. The initiative will be available across projects of varying scale, geography and art form. Full details are available on my Department's website.
