Written Answers Nos. 58 to 65
58. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to develop musical education and make instruments available to young persons and the general population through facilitating schools, youth groups and libraries in enhancing their music resources and the provision of access to musical training and instruments for the benefit of local communities. [19866/16]
View answerMy Department funds the Music Capital Scheme, which is designed to assist individuals and groups to purchase musical instruments and is administered by the Music Network on behalf of my Department. Further details in relation to the Music Network and its schemes are available at www.musicnetwork.ie.
In addition to this initiative, my Department provides funding to Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the largest organisation in the State involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music. Comhaltas operates various educational programmes in music, song and dance in all parts of Ireland where people of all ages are given the opportunity of developing their artistic abilities.
The Arts in Education Charter has been a landmark development in relation to the promotion of arts education and arts in education in Ireland. The Charter is an initiative of my Department and the Department of Education and Skills, working in association with the Arts Council. Among other initiatives, the Charter has led to the development of the Arts in Education Portal, which provides a resource where artists and teachers can be supported and inspired.
Other relevant initiatives include Music Education Partnerships in association with Music Generation and funding and support provided by the Arts Council. It should be noted that music education in schools is the responsibility of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills.
59. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht how the State paid a sum of €5 million to purchase 14 to 17 Moore Street, Dublin 1, including details of the valuation process of the properties and details of recipients of said moneys; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19852/16]
View answerThe cost of the acquisition of Nos. 14-17 Moore Street (and part of No. 18) by the State amounted to €4m. The purchase from the previous owner was effected with the assistance of the National Asset Management Agency and the €4 million consideration was arrived at in the normal commercial manner. Half the purchase price was paid to NAMA in 2015 and the balance is due to be paid in the current year.
The decision to acquire the national monument at Nos. 14-17 Moore Street for the State was because of its association with, and key role in, the events of Easter 1916 and in recognition of its significant historical value in that context.
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.
61. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question No. 69 of 1 June 2016, if she has carried out further research to assess Ireland's level of expenditure on culture as a percentage of gross domestic product, given that she has expressed doubts regarding the figures put forward by the compendium project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19835/16]
View answerThe Programme for a Partnership Government contains a very important commitment to work to progressively increase funding to the arts, including the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board, as the economy continues to improve.
I can assure the Deputy that I will be engaging with my colleagues in Government and with the Oireachtas to seek to advance this commitment in the context of the forthcoming estimates and budgetary processes.
I understand that the figures quoted by the Deputy are from a Council of Europe project called Compendium - Cultural Policies and Trends in Europe. I understand that many European counties are not included in the figures, including ten EU member states. The data for the Compendium project are provided by independent researchers and it is not a standardised system for collection of statistics.
I further understand that Compendium itself warns that data provided by the researchers are not comparable across countries because each researcher includes different elements in the definition of culture and these elements are reflected in the figures for public expenditure. For example, local authority expenditure on the arts, artists, exemption tax relief, expenditure on public service broadcasting and the Irish language are all examples of elements not included in the Council of Europe figures for Ireland but included in the figures for some other countries.
Expenditure on the arts in Ireland comes from multiple sources, both public and private. I understand that the CSO does not produce national statistics that capture the totality of this expenditure as a percentage of GDP.
The issue of a definition of culture and of capturing public expenditure on culture is one that was discussed in the public consultation process held for the purpose of developing Ireland's first national Cultural Policy Framework, Culture 2025. As I have previously stated, I do consider that further research on this issue is warranted in the context of Culture 2025.
The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to the publication of Culture 2025 as a priority. My Department is continuing to consider inputs on the draft document from the Steering and Expert Groups, which I established, and I expect to forward a draft for consideration to the relevant Oireachtas Committee shortly.
62. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which she and her Department continue to support, maintain, preserve and promote heritage sites throughout the country with particular reference to the need to ensure that nothing is lost that can be preserved for future generations; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19890/16]
View answerMy role, as Minister, with regard to the protection and management of our architectural heritage, is set out in the provisions of relevant legislation, as are the role of local authorities and the responsibilities of owners as regards heritage assets.
Under the provisions of the National Monuments Acts 1930-2014, my Department has established and maintains the Record of Monuments and Places, which affords legal protection to over 120,000 recorded archaeological sites and monuments in the State. Anyone proposing works to a monument that is included in the Record of Monument and Places must give my Department two months prior notice before works can start.
I also have a role, as Minister, in terms of being a prescribed body under the Planning and Development Regulations 2001-2015, whereby development proposals that may impact on our built heritage are referred by a planning authority to my Department so that recommendations can be made as appropriate to avoid or mitigate any such impacts.
My Department has a number of measures at its disposal to facilitate the maintenance and restoration of major historical or cultural sites. As Minister, I am the owner or guardian under the National Monuments Acts of approximately 1,000 national monuments located at approximately 750 sites and in such cases there is a statutory duty to maintain the national monument. Such maintenance is undertaken by the Office of Public Works (OPW). Local authorities are responsible under the National Monuments Acts for maintaining the national monuments of which they are owners or guardians.
My Department is also providing €350,000 of funding to the OPW in 2016 to assist in the conservation and presentation of historic buildings and national monuments in State ownership. OPW undertakes the care and maintenance of national monuments in my ownership or guardianship (of which there are approximately 750). My Department’s National Monuments Service works in close collaboration with the OPW on survey, excavation and research work to optimise the protection, management, interpretation and presentation of national monuments in State care.
Part IV of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provides for the protection of architectural heritage. The Act gives primary responsibility to planning authorities to identify and protect the architectural heritage by including relevant structures on the Record of Protected Structures. Inclusion on the Record of Protected Structures places a duty of care on the owners and occupiers of protected structures and also gives planning authorities powers to deal with development proposals affecting them and to seek to safeguard their future.
Under Section 54 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, a planning authority may add to or delete from its record of protected structures, a structure, a specified part of a structure or a specified feature of the attendant grounds of a structure. Such a structure, specified part of a structure, or specified feature remains on the record of protected structures until such time as the planning authority deletes it. Provision is made in the Act for the carrying out of works to protected structures either by way of planning permission or on the foot of a declaration received from a planning authority that certain works that would not materially affect the character of a structure are exempted development. There is a duty of owners and occupiers to protect structures from endangerment. Where structures become endangered or unauthorised development has been or is being carried out, the planning authority has the powers to take appropriate action.
There is a number of ways in which my Department acts in respect of possible heritage sites/buildings deemed to be at risk. One of these is the receipt of applications for funding for the repair, conservation, preservation or safeguarding of protected structures, sites or monuments. Financial support is being provided by my Department through a number of structured schemes for the conservation and protection of heritage buildings.
I launched a new €2 million scheme - the Built Heritage Investment Scheme - for the repair and conservation of protected structures on 21 October 2015. This scheme will operate in 2016, via the local authorities, on the same model as the very successful Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme, which ran in 2014. It is expected to support in excess of 330 projects across the country and to create employment in the conservation and construction industries, while helping to regenerate urban and rural areas. The scheme for this year is now fully allocated.
The Structures at Risk Fund enables conservation works to heritage structures, in both private and public ownership, which are protected under the Planning and Development Acts and are deemed to be at significant risk of deterioration. This fund, which has an allocation of over €900,000 and will support 57 projects nationally in 2016, is administered through the local authorities and seeks to encourage the regeneration and reuse of heritage properties and to help to secure the preservation of protected structures which might otherwise be lost. Funding for 2016 has now been fully allocated.
63. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her views on the campaign to have a Government Department which is dedicated solely to arts, culture and heritage, and the concerns of many persons on the perceived downgrading of this portfolio; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19834/16]
View answerI confirmed on Tuesday this week that the name of my newly reconfigured Department was approved by Government as the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs.
The new name reflects the broader remit of the reconfigured Department, which retains all of the responsibilities of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with additional responsibility for a wide range of programmes relating to rural and regional affairs and development.
The creation of a larger Department, with a wider remit, will not in any way diminish the importance of arts and culture within Government. On the contrary, a larger Department with wider responsibilities, will bring greater weight to bear in promoting the importance of arts and culture right across Government. The wider brief of rural and regional affairs sits well with the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to strengthen the role of arts and heritage at local level, including by building stronger links with local development groups.
This is also coupled with the commitment in the Programme for a Partnership Government to progressively increase funding to the arts as the economy continues to improve. In 2016, the Arts, Culture and Film programme of my Department will account for the highest proportion of my Department’s Vote at 49% (€188m) of the total allocation. This reflects the fact that the arts are essential to the well-being of our society and that a thriving arts and cultural sector makes a hugely positive contribution to the Irish nation in general.
64. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to publish all advice from the Attorney General and any other State and semi-State body or agency which informed her decision to appeal the historic landmark decision of a High Court Judge (detailed supplied) to designate the Moore Street battlefield site in Dublin 1 as a national monument; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19849/16]
View answerThe case is due before the Court of Appeal again tomorrow for a directions hearing. As the matter is sub judice, and in accordance a longstanding rule of the Dáil with regard to advice sought or received from the Attorney General, I am advised that it would not be appropriate to release the legal advice I have received in this instance. The advice is also covered by legal professional privilege.
65. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the status of an application by a person (details suppled) for a visa; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20109/16]
View answerI am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that the application was approved and granted by the Irish Visa Office in New Delhi. The documents along with the visa were returned to the applicant on 27 June, 2016.
The Deputy may wish to note that queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response from INIS is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or too long awaited.
In addition, applicants may themselves e-mail queries directly to the INIS Visa Office (visamail@justice.ie).
