I will share time with Deputy Ferris.
Adjournment Debate. - Tipperary Heritage Project.
I am sure that is satisfactory and agreed.
I am extremely annoyed, frustrated and cynical about the type of operation involved in this project. A group of people with an excellent record who built the Canon Hayes Sports Complex, a highly successful self-paying venture, got together and bought the Excel Cinema in Tipperary town for £50,000 in 1993. They engaged architects and engineers for submitted plans to convert it into a heritage complex, including a cinema which would be self-paying, and other facilities. After much consultation full approval was given by the Arts Council and Bord Fáilte to proceed and accept the project. Planning permission was granted on 1 March 1995. The cost was estimated at £3.4 million excluding VAT. The facilities included a 132 and a 74 seater cinema because people in Tipperary town must travel to Clonmel or Limerick city to a cinema.
In confirming Heritage Council status on 20 January 1994, Bord Fáilte authorised the appointment of a project director and the design team. The new Government then entered office and divided tourism grants between Bord Fáilte and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht on the cultural tourism side, completed applications being lodged with both at that time. During 1995 the organisation received many queries about its ability to raise 25 per cent of the cost of the project — all of which were answered — having already raised in excess of £300,000 by various draws held among the local community for that project alone.
The Minister appointed a new committee who held its first meeting in January last and were to report to him before taking his final decision, at which point it was realised there was no cooperation between the two Government Departments. The Minister for Tourism and Trade was then requested to coordinate the efforts of both Departments.
Through this period we were assured there was no problem vis-à-vis the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. We were assured by Deputy Ferris that there was no problem, the money was in the bag and the project ready to be implemented — I have umpteen witnesses to that reassurance — only to discover that the problem lay with the Minister for Tourism and Trade.
Over that period several policy changes were effected, several movings of goalposts, the last of which was a request that the directors be given personal guarantees and, in the event of their not being forthcoming, the local authority would give its guarantee. In their generosity and desire to see the project go ahead, members of the local authority guaranteed that the project would be secured against any future losses, the first time such a unanimous decision had been taken since its infamous support of the imposition of telephone charges for calls made from telephone kiosks, in itself a tribute to those councillors outside the Tipperary area.
At that point they were afforded full charity status which exempted the Heritage/Excel project from corporation tax in addition to being eligible for section 32 relief under the 1984 Finance Act which provided annual tax relief to individuals or companies ranging from £100 to £10,000 annually.
Those guarantees were given in the firm belief that those funds would be approved and forthcoming from the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. Work had begun only to be subjected to what amounted to a knife in the back, delivered in the form of a letter from the Minister's secretary, to the effect that the Minister very much regretted having to inform the group that their project was not being included among others.
The area is devastated. That area suffered recently when Mass Mutual closed its factory, leading to a need for its replacement. This was a project proposed for what is described as the golden triangle between the town of Cashel that attracts 200,000 visitors annually to the Rock of Cashel, the Glen of Aherlow, the town of Cahir which attracts some 145,000 visitors annually to view its castle, and Tipperary town, set to host a heritage, arts and cultural centre.
The first refusal came from the least expected quarter, from the Minister's Department, resulting in depression and devastation on the part of the local community which I must warn the Minister will quickly turn to anger. The people of the town and surrounding areas, with an interest in tourism in west Tipperary, wanted this project to proceed, having been given so many assurances that the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht would not refuse its funding but that there was a danger that the Minister for Tourism and Trade might refuse.
On examining replies to parliamentary questions I discovered that £3 million was expended in Galway in the Minister's constituency in 1994, another £3 million in 1995 whereas the corresponding amounts expended in the entire county of Tipperary, consisting of two constituencies, were £800 in 1994 and £67,500 on the Clonmel art project in 1995. Of the total of £5 million, two-thirds was expended in the Minister's constituency.
That is not so.
In reply to Parliamentary Question No. 97 on 28 November 1995 the Minister said:
Details of capital moneys expended by my Department in each county during 1994 and to 24 November 1994 are set out in the following tabular statement....
That statement showed a huge amount of money expended.
It refers to Gaeltacht expenditure.
Yet this was a community helping itself, organised by a team that had already proved itself in the case of the sports complex in Tipperary, rendering it profitable and viable. Indeed, a member of this Government was to be invited to open the refurbished swimming pool there. None of this team had anything to gain personally but was interested solely in community activity in their area.
Before the community's disillusionment turns to bitter anger, I appeal to the Minister to rescind his decision and immediately reinstate this project on the playing pitch.
I thank the Minister for allowing me to utilise some of his allotted time. While there were some inaccuracies in Deputy Davern's contribution, I am not here to engage in political point scoring. For example, Deputy Davern forgot to mention the £750,000 granted for the Clonmel museum recently. I should point out that the project submitted for approval for grant assistance to Bord Fáilte and the Minister's Department, under the provisions of the cultural development incentive scheme, is costed at approximately £3.4 million, a major portion of which is to be raised from community and corporate financing with a local authority guarantee against revenue losses for ten years. I was directly involved in ensuring that this decision received local authority approval.
To date the community has raised £300,000 toward the cost of this integrated centre comprising an art gallery, workshops, theatres, cinemas and an interpretative centre bearing the theme "The Land of Tipperary" resulting from intensive research.
At my insistence, the project has been granted charitable status and tax incentives which together will give full-time employment to 24 people in an area of high unemployment. Unfortunately, because of a long delay on the part of Bord Fáilte to take a decision to submit this proposal to its management committee, the Minister was left with the undesirable option of approving only valid applications submitted which did not include the Heritage-Excel project in Tipperary town consequent on Bord Fáilte's lack of commitment to date.
If Bord Fáilte agrees to grant-aid this project, I ask the Minister to be prepared to examine a new, revised application from the relevant committee. I invite him to visit Tipperary to see the site plans and some other successful projects as proof of the successful efforts of this magnificent committee, of which I am a member.
This case refers to an application submitted to me for the development of the Tipperary Excel/Heritage project by the Tipperary Excel Heritage Company Limited under the cultural development incentive scheme I administer under the Operational Programme for Tourism 1994-1999. I was sorry to have had to interrupt Deputy Davern but he should have referred to expenditure under the Operational Programme for Tourism, about which I will say something in a moment, whereas the reply to the parliamentary question to which he referred related to capital expenditures in Galway which included the capital programme of Údarás na Gaeltachta which can be discussed on another occasion.
Following an invitation for applications under the scheme a total of 170 were lodged with my Department involving assistance amounting to some £87 million. The total amount available to me under the scheme during the five year period 1994-99 is £19.7 million, which, together with the matching funds that have to be provided by successful applicants, will enable a total capital infrastructure of at least £26 million to be put in place in the period up to 1999. A total of £14.7 million has been designated for allocation to successful applicants from the 170 applications received. The remaining £5 million available under the scheme will be allocated following a second and final call for applications. This call will be made later this year — I expect around September.
I engaged the expertise of a number of State agencies to carry out an examination of the applications received. An Chomhairle Ealaíon — the Arts Council — carried out a detailed artistic examination on applications for projects such as arts centres, galleries, theatres, etc. and supplied my Department with a detailed written submission on each. The Heritage Council assessed similarly applications in respect of museum and other heritage-type projects. Bord Fáilte carried out a financial/marketing evaluation of projects as required. An advisory committee, whose brief, following consideration of all assessments/ evaluations, was to make recommendations to me on the projects which it felt merited funding, was established by me.
Following my approval in principle to fund eight projects, announced in February, which included £1.4 million for a theatre in Galway — the advisory committee considered the remaining applications, including the Tipperary Excel Heritage project and made recommendations to me recently. Having considered the committee's recommendations I offered funding in principle to 16 projects, details of which I announced yesterday involving investments of just over £11 million. Subject to the satisfactory resolution of outstanding issues with the applicants, grant offers totalling £7,845 million in EU and Exchequer funding towards these projects will be made. I propose to circulate details of the 16 projects to Deputies.
Difficult decisions had to be made and some worthwhile projects, including the Tipperary Excel Heritage Project, could not be assisted, given the limited funding at my disposal. While this is regrettable, the fact that I obtained 170 applications for assistance under the scheme indicates the wealth of interest in arts and heritage activities throughout the State. I very much hope that the cultural development incentives scheme can serve as a catalyst for the realisation of further capital projects and, as I have already mentioned, I propose to invite applications later this year for the remaining £5 million which is at my disposal under the scheme.
If the promoters of the Tipperary Excel Heritage Project are able to advance other components of their proposal, such as the suggested participation of Bord Fáilte in certain elements — at the time of my decision no final decision had been taken by the management committee in regard to that — and achieve adjustments to the costings which are currently envisaged, when I invite applications later this year their application will be reconsidered in the context of all other applications received. I have listened with great care to the case being made as to the social impact of this proposal.