Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 January 2022
93. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the strategies in place to deliver on the recommendations proposed by the Night-time Economy Taskforce including the status of the establishment of an implementation structure; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2504/22]
View answerThe Night-time Economy is a hugely important sector, contributing to our economy and our cultural and creative sectors and it is important that we protect, support and sustain it – particularly as we begin to emerge out of this pandemic and we start to think about how and where we socialise and how we plan our city and town centres.
The Report of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce contained 36 practical recommendations in the area of regulation, licensing, planning, transport, safety and increasing the diversity of activities as part of the night-time offering. A robust implementation structure is currently being established to ensure that the recommendations are implemented in full and also, importantly, that the document remains current and that new ideas and new developments are included as the work progresses. Meanwhile, I am working with colleagues across Government and stakeholders to drive the implementation of the various actions in this Report and work is well underway to implement the actions in the Report. I was delighted to allocate €4m from my Departments budget this year towards the implementation of this Report.
Last year, my Department provided support for a new a series of late night events across the country as part of Culture Night on foot of the Taskforce recommendation in this area. It is intended to build on this for this year’s Culture Night.
Work is well underway with our partners in the local authority to start the pilot initiative establishing new "Night-Time Advisors" in six cities and towns to develop new Night-Time Economy opportunities.
My Department also recently worked with the nightclub sector (Give Us The Night), the vintners associations, An Garda Síochána and the local authorities to deliver on-line vulnerability training for nightclubs and bars as they plan for a full reopening. This training was very well received and is being rolled out in support of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce Report recommendation which highlighted the issue of public safety.
Progress is also being made by my own Department and other members of the Taskforce, working with stakeholders, in the development of responses to many of the other actions also and I look forward to continued progress across all areas of this Report over the coming months.
