Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 11 November 2021
268. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the degree to which her Department can address issues of urban and rural deprivation by way of access to services run by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55453/21]
View answerMy Department’s Statement of Strategy 2021-2023 published earlier this year sets out the actions that my Department will take over the coming period to enrich the quality of life in Ireland through supporting the development of tourism, culture, arts, sports, media and Irish language. In addition to their immense inherent value, these are valued by all of our communities as important resources for social cohesion, individual and community wellbeing and for the presentation of Ireland as an attractive destination for tourism and sustainable inward investment.
In addition to the core Departmental goals set out in this document, a number of cross cutting-goals have been incorporated into the Department’s objectives which will be reflected in our policies and programmes over the lifetime of this Statement of Strategy including supporting and promoting diversity, social inclusion and full and effective female participation across the Department’s sectors and society in line with Programme for Government commitments.
While my Department is not engaged in the direct delivery of services to individual members of the public my Department will continue to support these objectives through participation in programmes such as the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025 and Our Rural Future 2021-2025 both of which come under the remit of the Minister for Rural and Community Development.
Examples of the way in which my Department is contributing to these objectives include the following.
- In the area of Sport we will seek to target resources at programmes that seek to address inequalities in sports participation, in particular socio-economic disadvantage through the work of the Local Sports Partnerships and prioritizing capital investment in sports facilities in areas of historic low levels of participation and deprivation.
- Harnessing the creative potential of our people and communities is key element of the Creative Communities pillar of the Creative Ireland Programme. The Creative Ireland Programme has established a Culture and Creativity Team and is working with local authorities across the country each of which has created to a five-year Culture and Creativity Strategy 2017 – 2022 to enable people are working together to transform their communities, their lives and their environment through creativity.
- In addition to this the Creative Youth Plan, published by the Government in December 2017 proposes a long-term objective to help promote a society in which knowledge and creativity are equal partners in the formation of our young people and where schools can support creativity and innovation in teaching and learning in an integrated way. For example, among the initiatives being progressed under this programme Story Seeds, which was piloted by Fighting Words in January this year with DEIS schools in North Inner City Dublin. Story Seeds is designed to engage young people through creative writing, to help them articulate their own life stories so that they can better understand their own experiences and their place in the world. In May this year, I announced funding to extend this project to schools, as well as voluntary and community groups, in other areas of Dublin City, Cork City, Limerick City, Bray, and Drogheda.
- Furthermore under the DEIS Gaeltachta initiative, the Department provides funding for 50 scholarships annually worth c. €850 each to qualifying students attending DEIS post-primary schools to cover the cost of attending an Irish Language Summer College in the Gaeltacht, thus making the Gaeltacht experience available to students from all socio-economic backgrounds.
I welcome the Deputy’s interest in this matter and trust that the above is of assistance to him in appreciating the contribution of my Department to the promotion of social inclusion and cohesion across the country.
