Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2021
180. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the breakdown of the intended recipients of the €27,100,000 allocated in capital expenditure to cultural infrastructure and development under Vote 33 in the revised estimates; and the funding streams and State schemes that are distributing this funding. [34587/21]
View answerMy Department's investment programme for Culture under the National Development Plan (NDP) is set out in its sectoral plan Investing in our Culture, Language and Heritage – 2018 to 2027. Funding has been made available under the NDP for a culture and creativity investment programme. The Department's investment programme includes capital projects, capital programmes and capital grant schemes.
The majority of these capital investments, fall within an ambitious €460 million programme of redevelopment and renovation of our National Cultural Institutions (NCIs). Considerable work has been undertaken to date in partnership with the NCIs themselves and with the OPW in advancing the NCI projects through the appraisal and design/planning stages as required under the Public Spending Code and the the Capital Works Management Framework (CWMF). Other flagship projects include the redevelopment of the Royal Irish Academy of Music, in partnership with the Department of Education, the Mary Robinson Centre in Mayo and the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny.
Priority projects under the National Cultural Institutions Investment programme of €460 million can be listed as follows :
National Library of Ireland redevelopment;
Provision of an Archival Repository at the National Archives in Bishop Street;
National Museum of Ireland masterplan redevelopment;
National Concert Hall renovation;
Crawford Art Gallery redevelopment;
National Theatre redevelopment;
Irish Museum of Modern Art renovation;
National Gallery of Ireland – further phases of the masterplan redevelopment;
Chester Beatty Library improvements.
Based on this investment we can expect to see the delivery of significant redevelopments our National Cultural Institutions. 2021 will see the advancement of a further phase of the redevelopment at the National Library of Ireland, as well as the commencement of the major construction phase of the National Archives project. This is in addition to a range of preparatory, investigative and enabling works at a number of other NCIs. Work is underway on the Preliminary Business Cases for the redevelopment of the Natural History Museum and the Abbey Theatre.
There will also be investments in regional arts and culture facilities and in the digitisation of important National Collection. A Cultural and Creativity investment programme is closely aligned with the cultural infrastructure, creative communities and creative industries pillars of the Creative Ireland Programme and include:
- Drawdown of funding allocated under Streams A, B and D of the Cultural Capital Scheme;
- Drawdown of funding under the national digitisation investment programme whereby collections of national importance are digitised supporting the conservation, preservation and dissemination of collections;
- The Regional Museums Exhibition Scheme; and
- The Music Capital Scheme.
Details of all allocations are set out by programme area and by subhead in the Revised Estimates Volume 2021 (REV2021) published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on its website at www.gov.ie/en/collection/e20037-revised-estimates. All expenditure within my Department's vote will continue to be carefully monitored between now and year end to ensure the best use of available financial resources.
Expenditure from this subhead is published annually on my Department's website. Details of expenditure in previous years is available at the following link
www.gov.ie/en/publication/b1eab-creative-arts-grants-and-funding-previous-schemes/#cultural-development-expenditure.
