Joe McHugh
Question:331. Deputy Joe McHugh asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his views on a submission (details supplied). [14124/13]
View answerWednesday, 20 March 2013
Questions (331)
Written answers
The Deputy will appreciate that the bulk of the material in the submission referred to in his Question is not relevant to my area of responsibility and I will not be referring to those matters in my reply.
In relations to the arts, which does come within my area of responsibility, there is a range of ways in which my Department and relevant bodies within its remit are seeking to support arts, cultural and heritage initiatives, in conjunction with local groups and communities. These include:
- cultural tourism initiatives such as the St Patrick's celebrations, Music Day and Culture Night;
- the extensive support provided by the Arts Council for festivals and other arts and cultural events across the county;
- the range of activities organised by the National Cultural Institutions and other cultural venues supported by my Department;
- the Philanthropy Leverage Initiative, funded by my Department, which is designed to encourage philanthropic sponsorship and endowment funding of the arts from private sources, as well as the Arts Council funded Philanthropy Capacity Building Initiative;
- the many cultural and heritage events being held under the auspices of both The Gathering and our EU Presidency Cultural Programme;
- a number of web-based projects being developed by my Department to promote greater appreciation and understanding of Ireland’s heritage as a valuable amenity for residents and visitors alike;
- specific heritage-led projects such as the Historic Towns and Walled Towns Initiatives; and
- other collaborative work with bodies and groups such as the Heritage Council, the Irish Heritage Trust, Fáilte Ireland, and LEADER Groups.
Within the current economic constraints, investment in the arts, heritage, culture and creative sectors is more important than ever, having regard to the employment intensity of these sectors. While I know that the Deputy appreciates the funding difficulties facing all Departments at this time, I can assure him that I remain committed to securing the best possible level of funding for these sectors. The specific allocations to be made over the next few years will, of course, be dependent on the budgetary and estimates cycles in each of those years.