Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 November 2018
38. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she has had discussions with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government regarding amending the Arts Act 2003 in order to require each local authority to have a ring-fenced arts budget as recommended by arts advocacy organisations such as an organisation (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47438/18]
View answerMy priority in relation to local government is, to work closely with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy to highlight the importance of Arts and Culture at local authority level. Earlier this year, I joined with Minister Murphy and with the Taoiseach to launch Culture and the Creativity Strategies of all 31 local authorities. These strategies were jointly funded by my Department and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.
Local government legislation has specific provision enabling local authorities to promote arts and culture within their functional area. While I appreciate that some groups have called for the law to be changed to make it a requirement for arts funding to be non-discretionary I am not convinced that this would make a difference to expenditure on the ground. All local authorities already make provision for expenditure in the arts. A mandatory provision would not change the level of funding provided as councillors would still continue to balance expenditure proposals across all local authority programmes as is currently the case. It is far better in my view for local authorities to embrace cultural and artistic provision because they see the transformative engagement which the arts and culture can bring to local communities. I think that the experience of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme and now the Creative Ireland Programme have been instrumental in raising awareness at local government level of the value of this engagement.
For my part I will work to improve the resources which flow to local authorities through the Arts Council and through the Creative Ireland Programme in partnership with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.
The Taoiseach has declared his intention that he is committed to doubling funding for arts, culture and sport over a seven year period. The Government is already delivering on this objective. Last April we launched Investing in our Culture, Language and Heritage, a 10 year capital plan which will support cultural infrastructure nationwide.
Under 2019 Budget funding for the arts and culture sector in 2019 will increase by €22.6m to almost €190m which represents an increase of 14% on 2018. This funding will comprise of €148.2m in current expenditure and €41.7m in capital investment. In the context of the Deputy's question, this includes an increase to the Arts Council funding by almost €6.8m or 10% to a total of €75m made up of €6m in current expenditure, which is more than double the increase in 2018.
I am glad to report that Creative Ireland will receive funding of €7.15m – an increase of €1.15m primarily to support the Culture and Creativity Teams established in every local authority and to allow for the continued roll-out of Creative Youth. A total of €6m is being provided for the European City of Culture – Galway2020 and an additional €250k for the Decade of Centenaries for commemorations was also announced.
I am confident that the increased spending and continued engagement will support Pillar 2 of the Creative Ireland Programme, where local authorities are the primary instruments of community engagement for of the Programme entitled Enabling Creativity in Every Community throughout Ireland.
