Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 July 2021
537. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the supports for Irish writers that have been provided since the beginning of Covid-19; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40403/21]
View answerLiterature is an integral part of people’s lives in Ireland: books, stories, language and reading are essential to our culture and society. Ireland’s strong international reputation for literature is enhanced by contemporary writers who enjoy critical acclaim, win prestigious literary awards and attract significant readerships around the world.
Primary support for the arts including literature in Ireland is delivered by the Arts Council and it is independent in its funding decisions under the Arts Act 2003. Funding for the Arts Council has increased to €130 million for 2021. The Arts Council operates within a published ten-year strategic framework entitled Making Great Art Work. The Arts Council supports and develops the arts in Ireland through grant funding, project awards, support to individual artists, and support to venues, publications and resource organisations.
From the outset of the COVID-19 crisis, the Arts Council adopted a pro-active approach to supporting individual artists of all genres as well as arts organisations. One of the Council's first actions was its announcement to honour all existing funding commitments, pre-funding grantees up to 90% of funding to assist with commitments, especially to artists. Since then, the Arts Council introduced new and enhanced funding programmes such as commissions and bursaries. Further information of these investments can be accessed on the Arts Council’s website.
The Arts Council’s Literature budget in 2020 totalled €5.2 million, though it should be noted that this does not fully capture the Council’s investment in the art form, which is also supported through a range of other initiatives and budget lines. These include supports for multidisciplinary and small festivals, arts centres, Aosdána and local authority partnerships. Thus far in 2021, the Council has committed approximately €5.6 million to its support for Literature, including funding directly to writers, to festivals, key literature resource and children’s literature organisations, as well as writers residencies in universities. These figures incorporate funding to a range of publishers in the English and Irish languages – these include poetry and children literature publishers as well as a number of literary journals. The Council leads, or is central to, a number of special initiatives in literature, such as the Laureate for Irish Fiction Laureate na nÓg and the Ireland Chair of Poetry.
In 2020, the Arts Council awarded 110 bursaries with a total value of €1,567,800 to writers working through English and through Irish. This crucial support enables writers working across all genres – fiction, creative-nonfiction, poetry, children’s literature – to take time to develop and create work. In addition to this, the Covid 19 Response Award, introduced immediately after the introduction of the public health restrictions, saw 37 writers receive grants of €3k each, totalling €111k.
The Arts Council introduced a new Professional Development Award for artists across all art forms; in Literature alone, the Council awarded 109 Professional Development Awards in 2020, with a total value of just over €200k. The Council introduced a new Project Award in Literature, which supported writers and literary organisations in the creation of literature projects, and that resulted in 22 awards, totalling approximately €346k. A Literature Commission Award was introduced, and this supported arts organisations to directly commission writers to develop new work. Funding totalled just over €100k, was awarded to nine organisations and the funding was dedicated exclusively to artists’ and writers’ fees.
So far in 2021, the Council has already awarded 69 Literature Bursaries (in English and Irish language literature) with a total value of 1,155,800. The Arts Council is in the process of assessing the most recent round, and the total budget that will be spent exclusively on the Literature Bursary Award is approximately €2 million.
An Agility Award was introduced in 2021, and to date, the Council has supported 50 writers with a total value of €?220,750 through this open and flexible award. Round 2 of the Agility Award closed recently and a third opportunity will be available to writers later this year.
Details of these funding schemes and initiatives in support of literature can be viewed on the Arts Council's website at the following link http://www.artscouncil.ie/Arts-in-Ireland/Literature/Schemes-and-initiatives/. All of the recipients of all awards are available on the Art Council’s website.
In terms of Irish language initiatives, I should add that my Department provides significant funding to Foras na Gaeilge in order to carry out a statutory mandate to promote the Irish language on an all-island basis. Foras provides ongoing support for publishing and literature through An Gúm, Clár na Leabhar Gaeilge, Áis and other initiatives. An Gúm provides publications and facilities to support the language in the education system, Clár na Leabhar Gaeilge supports publishing in Irish through various funding schemes and ÁIS distributes Irish language books throughout the country and further afield. Other initiatives include support for key online publications (the newspaper Tuairisc.ie, the lifestyle magazine NÓS.ie and the current affairs magazine Comhar.ie) and literary festivals such as Listowel Writers Week and IMRAM. Further information is available at the following link www.forasnagaeilge.ie/
