Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 October 2013
102. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the funding that will be available to the Arts Council for the coming budgetary year; if he intends to increase the level of funding available to the Arts Council; the way in which the funding for the last budgetary year was spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44241/13]
View answerThe 2014 allocation to An Chomhairle Ealaíon/The Arts Council is €55,893,000, of which €55,800,000 is current and €93,000 capital. These figures are, of course, provisional, pending publication of the Revised Estimates Volume in due course. Under the Arts Act 2003, the Arts Council is statutorily independent in its day-to-day operations and neither I nor my Department has a role to play in its executive or funding decisions. I would remind the Deputy that all of the Arts Council's funding decisions from 2007 to 2013 inclusive are available on its website at http://www.artscouncil.ie/en/we_funded.aspx .
Even with a reduced Departmental budget, for every week of 2014 more than €2.3 million will be invested in arts, culture and film. This figure does not include the separate allocation of €6 million arising from the National Lottery transaction for the National City of Culture initiative.
