Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 March 2018
1079. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the local authorities that received funding to host events (details supplied) in 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12033/18]
View answerThe Creative Ireland programme was launched in December 2016 and is a five year initiative, placing creativity at the centre of public policy. It is a cross-Government initiative led by my Department. Significant progress has been made across the five pillars of this Programme and a full report of activity and achievements in 2017 including information on Cruinniú na Casca can be found in the End of Year Report on my Department's Creative Ireland website: https://creative.ireland.ie/en.
A total of €2m was allocated to the local authorities in 2017 (approximately €64,000 each) to help them implement their Culture and Creativity Action Plans for 2017. Each local authority had full discretion as to how they wished to allocate this amount and that included supporting Cruinniú na Casca.
Local authorities were invited to submit proposals for additional support for Cruinniú if required. Two proposals were received, one from Kerry County Council and the other from Laois County Council, both to support specific Cruinniú programmes. Kerry County Council were allocated €10,000 and Laois County Council were allocated €5,000.
A large-scale, national Cruinniú na Cásca event was held in partnership with RTÉ and DCC. The total cost of this event came to €1.3m which included a contribution from DCC.
