Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 July 2013
164. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the measures being taken to support the creative industries particularly in the north west to increase their export potential and grow employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33519/13]
View answerIn general, the creative industries are considered to encompass advertising, design, fashion, R&D, architecture, crafts, ICT, software, the audiovisual industry, publishing, music and games. The Minister with primary responsibility for the development of these areas is my colleague, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
The creative industries are frequently coupled with the cultural industries and collectively described as the "cultural and creative industries" or CCIs. The CCIs encompass the list above as well as the arts, film, culture and cultural heritage.
In my area of responsibility, funding is generally directed to support the cultural element of the CCIs. It is delivered directly from my Department to many of the national cultural institutions – the National Gallery, the National Museum, the National Archives, the National Concert Hall, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Crawford Gallery, the Chester Beatty Library and to other bodies through the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board. Details of allocations are available in the Annual Estimates Volume and through the websites of the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board www.artscouncil.ie and www.irishfilmboard.ie., respectively.
There are two EU programmes operating in these areas -the Media Programme and the Culture Programme. The Media Programme is the EU support programme for the European audiovisual industry (details available at www.mediadeskireland.ie). The Culture Programme is the EU support programme for organisations working in the field of culture (details available at www.ccp.ie).
A new framework programme for the sector - the Creative Europe Programme - will run from 2014 – 2020. The new programme will amalgamate the current Culture and MEDIA programmes under a common framework and will also create an entirely new facility to improve access to finance. The recent Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union finalised all the details of this new programme and it is expected to be passed into operation shortly.
