Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2022
306. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will provide an update on the implementation of the Night-Time Economy Report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10980/22]
View answer307. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if work has commenced on a comprehensive audit of arts and cultural facilities and event spaces nationwide which could potentially be used in the night-time economy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10981/22]
View answer308. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if dedicated night-time economy activation workshops are being organised to determine actions that are required to support night-time economy initiatives for different age groups as envisaged in the Night-Time Economy Report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10982/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 306, 307 and 308 together.
The 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 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, which I published in September 2021, contains 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 has now been agreed 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. Work is well underway to implement the actions in the Report and I was delighted to allocate €4m from my Department's budget this year towards the implementation of the actions within my own remit.
Some key areas of progress include my Department’s support for a new a series of late night events across the country as part of Culture Night last year on foot of the Taskforce recommendation in this area. It is intended to build on this for this year’s Culture Night.
Following on from a successful roll-out of vulnerability training last December which supports the recommendation on the issue of public safety, my Department is supporting the delivery of additional on-line vulnerability training, commencing in March. This training has been developed with and is supported by the nightclub sector (Give Us The Night), the Vintners Associations, Restaurant Association of Ireland, the local authorities and also with the support of An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice.
Significant progress has been made with our partners in the local authority to develop the pilot initiative establishing new "Night-Time Advisors" in six cities and towns to develop new Night-Time Economy opportunities.
Work is also well underway in relation to action 5 which recommends organising dedicated activation workshops to determine actions that are required to support night-time economy initiatives for different age groups. The process of consultation will begin with the 16-24 age group. My Department is working with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to identify an appropriate model of engagement for this specific age group. The next scheduled phase of consultation/workshops will be an older demographic and my Department will work with the appropriate agencies to determine the best models of engagement for this age demographic.
The action which recommends a comprehensive audit of arts and cultural facilities, and event spaces nationwide which could potentially be used in the Night-Time Economy is the responsibility of the Arts Council and my officials will be engaging with the Arts Council to progress this recommendation in the Report.
I look forward to continued progress across all areas of this Report over the coming months.
