Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2016
60. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the controls she has in place to ensure that each regional and demographic segment of Irish society has its fair share of arts funding. [19860/16]
View answerMost of the Government's funding for the arts is allocated to the Arts Council. The Council is statutorily independent in its funding decisions. However, the Arts Council is aware of the issues regarding geographical and demographic access and in this regard the Arts Council Strategy (2016–2025), Making Great Art Work, sets out how it will lead the development of the arts in Ireland over the next decade. This contains five priority areas as follows:- the Artist; Public Engagement; Investment Strategy; Spatial and Demographic Planning and Developing Capacity.
Information on the Arts Council's funding schemes, funding decisions and reasons for those decisions is available for each county through its decisions database on its website.
My Department has a role in providing capital funding for Arts and Cultural centres. In this regard, I announced a new €9 million investment scheme for arts and cultural centres to run over the next three years, focused on enhancing the existing stock of such centres around the country. My Department is finalising the guidelines and application forms in relation to the scheme, which I intend to open for applications shortly. The guidelines will allow for geographical issues to be taken into consideration in final decision making.
