Clare Daly
Question:143. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her views regarding plans she may have to change the way arts funding is organised. [5460/15]
View answerTuesday, 10 February 2015
Questions (143)
Written answers
The Government's policy on the arts is to promote and strengthen the arts in all its forms, to increase access to and participation in the arts, and to make the arts an integral and valued part of our national life.
Under the Arts Act 2003, primary responsibility for the promotion of the arts at all levels throughout the country is devolved to the Arts Council. The Arts Council is the main channel of State current expenditure on the arts and will receive almost €59 million in 2015. Although the Council is funded through my Department, it is statutorily independent in its funding decisions, as provided by the Arts Act 2003.
I believe that the Arts Council serves the arts and this country well, and I have no plans to change the institutional arrangements, which encompass the arm's length approach to the distribution by the Council of Exchequer funding to the arts. Significant expertise on the arts resides in the Arts Council and I believe, therefore, that it is best placed to identify and fund excellence in the arts.
I am also committed to ensuring the delivery of the country's first ever national cultural policy - Culture 2025 - which will set out the high-level aims and policies of the Government in the period up until 2025. I will shortly be initiating a wide-scale consultation process to ensure that all stakeholders and members of the public can make their views known on the various aspects of arts and cultural policy.