Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 March 2017
656. Deputy Tony McLoughlin asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the extent to which local community-based festivals within counties Sligo and Leitrim have benefited from EU grant aid, directly or indirectly, with particular reference to the specific grant aid for festivals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13102/17]
View answerThe LEADER Programme provides a wide range of supports to local community groups for a broad range of activities. Under the 2007 – 2013 LEADER Programme in excess of €150,000 was provided in LEADER grant aid for community based festivals in County Sligo while over €282,000 was provided in County Leitrim. Creative Europe 2014 - 2020 is the European Union’s funding programme to support the audiovisual, cultural and creative sectors. It consists of MEDIA and CULTURE sub-programmes as well as a Cross-sectoral strand.
The Creative Europe - Culture sub-programme has granted over €13 million in project funding to projects with Irish partners in its first three years. The majority of the funding available under the Culture sub-programme is via the co-operation projects strand.
While to date festivals based in Sligo or Leitrim have not been grant-aided under this Programme, there have been four Irish festivals involved as partners in projects with a total project grant allocation of just under €3 million. The Culture sub-programme also funds EU networks and platforms via operating grants for the lead organisations.
A complete list of funding results is published on the Education, Audio-Visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) website: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe/selection-results_en.
