Vol. 961 No. 4
47. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount of additional funding the Arts Council sought in budget 2018; the reason for the decision to allocate an additional €3 million to the Arts Council compared to the additional €8.5 million allocated to Creative Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47855/17]
Will the Minister outline how much additional funding the Arts Council sought in budget 2018? Will she explain the rationale behind the decision to allocate an additional €3 million to the Arts Council compared to the additional €8.5 million allocated to Creative Ireland?
There is a misunderstanding in the question. The Creative Ireland programme did not get an additional €8.5 million in the budget. Rather, the €8.5 million in current funding across the cultural sector will assist in delivering on the objectives of the Creative Ireland programme, including the €3 million of that allocation which is being provided to the Arts Council.
In budget 2018, I announced a funding package of over €300 million in 2018 towards the development of our cultural and creative heritage. This represents an increase in funding to my Department of €13 million, comprising €9 million in current expenditure and €4 million in capital expenditure. I also secured an additional €90 million in capital funding between 2018 and 2021 for my Department which will accelerate investment across the culture, heritage and Gaeltacht sectors.
Of the €13 million in additional funding I secured for my entire Department in 2018, I allocated €8.5 million, equivalent to 65%, to arts and culture. From this €8.5 million in additional funding, I allocated an additional €2.56 million to the national cultural institutions, an additional €1.55 million to the Irish Film Board, €1 million to the Creative Children project, and €500,000 to Culture Ireland while the Arts Council received an additional €3 million.
The total Arts Council allocation of €68.2 million in 2018 represents 23% of total allocation to all areas of my Department. This is over 49% of all current expenditure by the culture division of my Department.
The Creative Ireland programme is a high-ambition all-of-Government initiative to mainstream creativity in the life of the nation to ensure, individually and collectively, we can realise our full creative potential. The Arts Council is a key partner in the programme, along with Departments, cultural institutions, local authorities and many others in the arts and cultural sector.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
I value the support and expertise of the Arts Council and will continue to work with it as we roll out the Creative Ireland programme, recognising the proper remit of both my Department and the Arts Council, and recognising also what can be achieved when everyone in the sector works together. By providing funding increases to key institutions, agencies and initiatives that deliver arts, creativity and culture right across the country, I am ensuring that this momentum will continue in 2018 and beyond.
My question was clear. I am interested in the Minister's thinking and logic behind the Arts Council as opposed to Creative Ireland. While I appreciate all the other figures she gave us, I am interested in these two specific bodies. The Arts Council is an independent statutory organisation, independent of politics, with an arm's length approach to support and assist artists and creative industries across the country.
The Minister knows the chair of the Arts Council publicly expressed her disappointment at the additional €3 million allocation to the Arts Council budget, stating it would severely hamper its ability to broaden supports to artists and organisations nationwide. An additional €8 million represents a mere 3% increase on previous years’ allocations, down from 5% year-on-year increases that had been given to the Arts Council budget up to 2017. The budget remains €15 million below 2008 levels.
The Arts Council is the main funding agency for the arts. In her reply, the Minister acknowledged the independent and critical role it plays in the arts. Will she focus her reply on the two bodies, the Arts Council and Creative Ireland?
I remind the Deputy that, while in government between 2007 and 2011, Fianna Fáil cut the Arts Council budget by 22%. I am glad I have been able to increase that budget by 20% since taking office in 2014. I absolutely respect the independence of the Arts Council and value its support and expertise. I will continue to work with it as we roll out the Creative Ireland programme, recognising its proper remit and that of my Department along with what can be achieved when all in the sector work together. By providing funding to key institutions, agencies and initiatives that deliver arts, creativity and culture throughout the country, I am ensuring that this momentum will continue in 2018 and beyond. The core Creative Ireland programme budget will be maintained at €5 million, which is the same as this year, with a further €1 million to be provided toward implementing the Creative Children plan, which I know the Deputy very much supports because it is a wonderful initiative to assist children to engage in culture and the arts.
As the Minister said, €8.5 million was allocated in the budget in order to accelerate the delivery of the objectives of Creative Ireland. However, it is entirely unclear to me and to many in the arts community how that money will be spent. I am concerned that Creative Ireland is going to either duplicate or usurp the function and role of the Arts Council. I am not alone in my concerns that it will become the alternative agency for funding the arts in Ireland. The allocation of €3 million to the Arts Council is nowhere close to what it and the arts community expected as a commitment from the Government to increased funding for the arts. How does the increase of €13 million to the Minister's Department fit with the Taoiseach's promise to double the arts budget over the next seven years and has the Department been given a map of projected increases to meet that pledge? Organisations need greater certainty on future funding and to know the figures in order that they might plan ahead.
I outlined the breakdown of the €8.5 million allocation, involving, among other things, €3 million for the Arts Council, €2.56 million for the cultural institutions, €1.55 million for the Irish Film Board and €1 million for the Creative Ireland project. As regards the Taoiseach's commitment, he said he wants to double funding for arts, culture and sport between now and 2025. He did not specifically say that he would double the Arts Council budget. There are many deserving bodies across the arts and culture spectrum, such as our national cultural institutions, the Irish Film Board, Culture Ireland and the Arts Council. I am pleased to say we increased funding across the board for arts and culture in budget 2018. The increases need to be incremental and sustainable because nobody wants to go back to the bad old days of reckless spending. As the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, has repeatedly stated, the unsustainable increases of today are the cutbacks of tomorrow.
I will not discuss the minutiae of the figures involved. However, many people are utterly confused about why Creative Ireland now appears to be the priority body for funding rather than the Arts Council which, unfortunately, suffered big cuts to its budget when the economy collapsed. They do not understand why those cuts were not restored. As Tánaiste, I was one of the biggest supporters of the arts budget. It lost out big time in budget 2018. All Members understand that. Creative Ireland has begun to sound more like an arts wing of the strategic communications unit. It seems to be about photo opportunities and precious little else but there is an important role to be played in terms of co-ordination. However, all I see from Creative Ireland is spin and photo opportunities for the Taoiseach, in particular, and the Minister. That is not good enough in terms of spending because there is so much else that needs to be done.
If the Deputy listens to what I am about to say regarding the figures, she will get a clearer picture. In 2017, the Arts Council will get €68.2 million in funding. Creative Ireland-----
That is less than it received in 2008.
It will receive €68.2 million in funding, which is nearly 50% of the total spend of my Department in that space. I have increased its budget progressively every year since I was appointed Minister in 2014. Creative Ireland does not get priority funding. It received €5 million last year and will get the same this year to assist local authorities to roll out the Creative Children programme. The Deputy will agree that setting up culture teams in local authorities has been extremely successful. Both counties in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan have a Creative Ireland plan and culture teams in place. This system is working extremely well. More and more people are engaging with the arts and culture and that is good. I want to be very clear on the funding.
48. Deputy Mick Wallace asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she is satisfied that the budget 2018 decision to increase the Arts Council's funding by less than 5% is consistent with the goal to double investment in the arts sector over the next seven years; the way in which she plans to meet this funding goal between 2017 and 2024; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47762/17]
My question is very similar to that of Deputy Niamh Smyth and relates to the same issue. There seems to be some confusion. The amount of money allocated to the arts in Ireland is way below the European norm. The Taoiseach has promised a lot more but we are playing catch-up and it seems that is going to continue. Given that the arts is so important to the Irish people, more should be done. One would think it thrives in spite of the Government rather than because of it. Will the Minister clarify the relationship between the Arts Council's ten-year Making Great Art Work strategy and that of the new entity, Creative Ireland?
I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The most important thing is that all involved in the arts sector work together to promote and encourage more people to get involved and participate in the arts. The Taoiseach has said he will double the overall budget for arts, culture and sport over the next seven years. We can meet that target by implementing sustainable increases on an incremental basis between now and 2025, which is a process initiated in budget 2018 in spite of it being a tight year across the board.
In the context of the budget, I announced a funding package of over €300 million in 2018 towards the development of our cultural and creative heritage, which is an increase in funding to my Department of €13 million, comprising €9 million in current expenditure and €4 million in capital expenditure. That includes a boost of €8.5 million in funding for arts and culture. I also secured an additional €90 million in capital funding for my Department between 2018 and 2021, which will accelerate investment across the culture, heritage and Gaeltacht sectors.
As part of the €8.5 million in additional funding, the Arts Council will receive an extra €3 million to enhance its support to artists and arts organisations of all sizes throughout the country. The total Arts Council allocation of €68.2 million for 2018 represents 23% of the total allocation to all areas of my Department or over 49% of all current expenditure by the culture division of my Department. I also allocated an additional €1.55 million to the Irish Film Board, which is an increase of 9.3%.
As the economy continues to improve in the coming years, the Government's ambition is to allocate more resources to arts and culture and to continue to build on the foundations I have put in place in budget 2018.
There are concerns about how the money is being used. What is the Minister's response to Emmet Kirwan, the brilliant playwright, who said that Creative Ireland's so-called fifth pillar "appears to be that artists should get on message and it commodifies the arts and co-opts artists to put forward an idealised version to the world of what Ireland is like, which is a branding exercise; but artists put forward to the world what Ireland actually is or they challenge ideas about what Ireland is"?
Here Mr. Kirwan seems to express a legitimate worry that Creative Ireland is little more than a marketing plan and a way to control what is created. This is not a far-fetched idea, seeing as the brains behind the operation is John Concannon, who now heads up the Government's new strategic communications unit. What does the Minister have to say to this?
Pillar 5 of the Creative Ireland programme aims to unify our global message to the world. The Deputy will appreciate that during the 1916 commemorations in 2016 there was huge engagement in our culture right across our embassies - right across the world, actually. Many different events were held in our embassies and attended by many among our diaspora and indeed others who wanted to engage in Irish culture. Culture Ireland will receive an extra €500,000 next year, which will enable an enhanced culture programme to be presented across Great Britain in 2018. This will build on the unique cultural relationship between the two countries and expand the reach of Irish culture to new audiences. It will also build on Pillar 5 of the Creative Ireland programme, which hinges on extending our cultural footprint globally and highlighting our culture as a unique national strength. This is very important because the IDA says culture is the best calling card it has and that it opens doors for the IDA. It is therefore very important we send out a good message internationally about how rich is our culture. It is a good news story.
I wish to explain something to Members trying to contribute on other Members' questions. There are Members who have tabled questions and are waiting to ask them, so I ask Members wishing to contribute on other Members' questions to ask short, snappy questions if they are called on. I call Deputy Wallace.
I have stayed within my own-----
The Deputy has his own question. I was not referring to him.
The justification for handing this funding to Creative Ireland is "to accelerate its programme". Is there an effort on the part of Creative Ireland to eclipse the Arts Council? The Arts Council's own ten-year strategy, Making Great Art Work, was published, strangely enough, without any reference whatsoever to the Department's own ten-year cultural policy, Culture 2025, which is supposed to be the foundation document of the control of arts funding. People are worried that more money is now going into controlling this in the background. Perhaps we are getting it wrong; I am only expressing the concerns of people involved in the area.
I call on Deputy Burton but ask her to be brief.
The Minister expressed a very philistine and utilitarian view of the arts. The arts does help to project Ireland, but that is not the purpose of the arts; it is one of the bonuses of the arts. It is very philistine of her to say that the IDA says the arts are its best calling card. They may be, but that is not the purpose of the arts. The purpose of the arts is for artists in Ireland to be able to express their creativity and tell us about ourselves.
I will clarify my comments. There are five pillars in the Creative Ireland programme. Pillar 1 concerns children, Pillar 2 concerns community, Pillar 3 concerns cultural institutions, Pillar 4 concerns media production and Pillar 5 aims to unify our global message to the world. What I am saying is very clear. We want to let people know the rich and varied cultural offering we have in this country and let them know that Ireland is a good place to come to live, invest, work or study. That is the purpose of Pillar 5.
There seems to be a confusion in Deputy Wallace's comments. Creative Ireland is a legacy programme for 2016. Culture 2025 is my Department's cultural policy and will soon be finished. It went through the Oireachtas committee and has come back and we are finalising it. I see Creative Ireland as the implementing body capable of implementing the actions and policies in Culture 2025. We want to spread culture and creativity right across Irish society, starting with children, communities, cultural institutions, media and our global message to the world.
49. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the way in which she will ensure that all bodies under her Department’s remit and those in receipt of funding from her Department make sufficient efforts to ensure that bullying and harassment do not happen in the workplace; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47854/17]
I will forgo a reading of the question and let the Minister answer it. Is that okay?
That is helpful.
It is a matter for the boards and directors or CEOs of the bodies funded by my Department, including those bodies directly under my Department's remit, to ensure that as employers they are compliant with all aspects of employment rights legislation, including those aspects relating to bullying and harassment in the workplace.
Everyone is entitled to be treated with respect, dignity, fairness and equality in the workplace. In recent times, there have been a number of alarming allegations and reports of sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace relating to the arts community. While all workplaces are obliged to comply with employment legislation, I have identified a number of actions that I can take as Minister in respect of the bodies reporting to my Department.
The intention is to help boards under the aegis of my Department fulfil their functions more effectively and to support them in ensuring that policies on equality and respect in the workforce operate effectively and in line with best practice. These actions include arranging separate dedicated governance workshops for board members and senior staff, with a particular emphasis on issues relating to bullying, abuse of power and sexual harassment in the workplace; working on a collaborative basis with the Arts Council to make similar training available to other cultural organisations and arts centres around the country at a series of regional information days; highlighting once again to bodies reporting to the Department the nature of their legal obligations by seeking assurances of their compliance with obligations under employment legislation; and accelerating a planned review of compliance by bodies reporting to the Department with the requirements of the code of practice for the governance of State bodies.
I am confident that these support measures will contribute to the further enhancement of existing governance structures in bodies reporting to my Department.
I had submitted this question before the Minister's announcement on 9 November in which she said she intends to introduce measures to address harassment and abuse of power in the arts and the cultural sector. This is important, and I acknowledge that the Government appeared to go to some lengths to distance itself from the controversies that erupted around the Gate Theatre and the National Museum of Ireland. Cultural institutions and our other national institutions must have that oversight from the Minister and her Department. It would be most helpful to have measures in place in this regard because, as Deputy Burton quite rightly pointed out, if there is no way to support the board and if the facility is not in place for those affected to address these matters, there is nowhere for people to go or speak out. It is such a pity that a young woman had to go on social media before her voice was heard and acted on.
As the Deputy will appreciate, I am limited in what I can do regarding private organisations and organisations funded independently by State agencies, for example, the Gate, where HR issues are a matter for the boards and management. All workplaces are obliged to comply with employment legislation. Legally, the boards of national cultural institutions and agencies are responsible for good governance practice. However, it is my intention to help boards fulfil their functions more effectively. I want to support them in ensuring that policies on equality and respect in the workforce operate effectively. As I said, I am meeting the leaders of the theatres on Thursday. I want to hear from them and work with them in order to hear their issues and hear how they feel this issue can be satisfactorily addressed. We must change the culture in these organisations. That is the most important thing.
The Minister keeps saying in all her replies to everyone around the House that she cannot interfere in HR matters.
However, if HR and its board of management still do not have the facilities to deal with issues, that is our problem as legislators. We cannot wash our hands of it. Was the Minister aware of the findings of wide-scale harassment reported in a survey by Irish Equity last year? SIPTU arts officer, Karan O'Loughlin, told RTÉ "News At One" that SIPTU went to the Arts Council as early as 2016 to ask it to help SIPTU to deal with the bullying and harassment in the sector by connecting funding to robust anti-bullying procedures, and the Arts Council refused. It says it was not its business. After everything that has transpired over the last two weeks, it is our business to have supports in place so that this does not happen.
I was not aware of the SIPTU survey. I did not see. I heard about it on the radio. A number of Deputies reminded me ten or 15 minutes ago that the Arts Council is independent. It is independent and I cannot interfere-----
The Minister cannot say it is not her responsibility. The Arts Council is independent but she still has to put the measures in place.
I cannot-----
Allow the Minister to speak without interruption.
The Arts Council is independent in its funding of these arts organisations.
I accept that but the Minister must have criteria in place.
I cannot-----
If Deputy Smyth is not happy with the answers, I have no control over them.
I cannot interfere in private organisations. There is plenty of good legislation that these organisations are meant to comply with-----
There was not in this case.
Organisations should have policies and procedures in place which they should follow.
They did not. That is the point.
These organisations are breaking the law if they do not follow those procedures. If somebody is breaking the law, the organisations should go to the gardaí.
The document I have here is the Irish Equity document on bullying and harassment. I am amazed that the Minister has not yet read it. It shockingly states that 60% of workers in the arts have been bullied while at work and that 70% of those bullied did not report it, which is incredible. It states that 60% of people who work in the arts work in a freelance manner and those two issues are by no means unrelated because the precarious nature of work within the arts means there is undue employer power and as a result there is exploitation of workers. It seems that the Minister is becoming the Minister for outsourcing responsibility.
There is a crisis in the sector. The Minister has levers of control. One is money. The Minister can refuse to fund organisations that are not working properly. She says there are laws and policies. They are patently not working. A person's only current recourse to justice is to go to the front page of a national newspaper or to minister Joe Duffy and that is not good enough.
The Arts Council funds these arts centres, theatres and other organisations. If I put conditions on Arts Council funding to any of these organisations, Deputy Tóibín will be the first person to say that I am interfering in the Arts Council funding.
That is not true.
Not for workers' rights.
I cannot impose conditions. The Arts Council has conditions and asks the organisations that receive funding to certify that they comply with a number of different issues and laws.
Why is it not happening?
Is it working?
It cannot micromanage any organisation and the Deputies know that. The people running these organisations have a responsibility to do it properly. If they are working outside the law, that is against the law-----
They should not be funded.
-----and is improper.
50. Deputy Marcella Corcoran Kennedy asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the progress made on the Creative Ireland programme to date in 2017; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47910/17]
I acknowledge that the Creative Ireland programme's genesis was in last year's 2016 commemorations. I welcome it and that we can focus on the well-being of our citizens with the Creative Ireland programme as well as focusing on our identity as a nation, which is important for us and the arts community, for everyone to be able to experience that. Has the Minister had any update on progress across the country under Creative Ireland 2017?
The Creative Ireland programme is a high level, high ambition, five-year initiative, which aims to place creativity at the centre of public policy. The launch document for the programme identified ten actions for 2017, under five specific pillars and there has been significant progress on their delivery. The position is as follows.
Under pillar 1, my Department is finalising a draft of a Creative Children plan for the period 2018 to 2022 in conjunction with the Departments of Education and Skills, and Children and Youth Affairs and the Arts Council. I expect that will be launched later this year. With regard to pillar 2, culture teams have been established in each of the 31 local authorities and each local authority produced a culture and creativity plan for 2017. Each local authority is now in the process of drawing up five-year strategic creativity plans which will be published in early 2018. The first Cruinniú na Cásca was launched on Easter Monday with the theme inclusion and diversity and work is now under way to develop our approach to Cruinniú in 2018. A pilot scheme to assist self-employed artists who have applied for jobseeker's allowance was put in place by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection last June.
Under pillar 3, my Department is finalising a capital investment programme for culture and heritage and has worked with the national cultural institutions on their plans under the programme. Work is progressing on the preparation of a plan for Ireland to become a global hub for the production of film, television drama and animation in accordance with pillar 4. A unified international identity and communications programme for Ireland was rolled out under pillar 5. This includes a new portal website for Ireland, www.ireland.ie, which has been viewed more than 2 million times around the world.
A forum entitled, Culture, Wellbeing and the Creative Society, Building the Policy Agenda, will take place on 13 December in Dublin Castle. The forum will also be the platform to launch the European Year of Cultural Heritage in Ireland. The European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport will attend that conference. Huge strides have been made progressing the Creative Ireland programme in its first year and I look forward to building on this success in 2018.
It is a good approach to the Creative Ireland programme to have a culture team and that it is recognised in local authorities, as the Minister has acknowledged and recognised. The local authorities can bring those policies down to a local level. We saw that last year local authorities worked with communities. What communities can do when encouraged and given support is extraordinary. I looked at ireland.ie earlier and it is very good. There is scope to expand it and I imagine that is being considered. I would also like to ask the Minister to consider a report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in 2015, which examined the potential for job creation, innovation and balanced economic development in the creative economy where the tri-sector categorisation of the creative economy included creative expression, application and technology. It fits in perfectly to Creative Ireland.
We want to work with all stakeholders through the Creative Ireland programme. The most important programme, which is rolling out shortly, is the creative children programme which, as the Deputy says, will encourage creativity in children. The aim is that, by 2022, every child will have access to tuition in music, drama, coding and art. It is important that we instill a love of art in young people. I was delighted that I was able to support a science festival through the Creative Ireland programme. When one sees how everything will be run by robots as we look forward, such as was shown at the science festival, we need to remember that we need somebody to programme them which requires creativity and thinking outside the box.
That is what I want to encourage through our Creative Children plan. I believe this to be important.
I thank the Minister for her answer. Following on from my earlier comments about the local authorities and how crucial they are in delivering the cultural policy at local level, I wonder if it is something the Minister would see happening around the capital programme. I am thinking of the counties I am more familiar with such as Offaly for example, where we have the Birr Theatre and Arts Centre, the Dunamaise theatre in Laois, and the new amphitheatre in Cloughjordan, all of which have been very well funded by the Department over the years. They are receiving ongoing public funding. Does the Minister see any new programmes being brought forward to help them to innovate and develop their own infrastructure there?
The arts and culture scheme, as the Deputy has said, has been very successful, as are the culture teams in the local authorities. The local authorities have been wonderful in putting together the culture teams and in the work they do.
With regard to the arts and culture capital scheme, some €10 million has been awarded to more than 120 arts centres, theatres, galleries and performance spaces across the State. This is the largest investment in our local and regional arts infrastructure in a decade. Deputies will be glad to hear that 85% of the funding went to projects outside Dublin. The scheme links in very well with pillar 2 of the Creative Ireland programme, to enable creativity in every community. As the Deputy has pointed out, a number of projects in Laois-Offaly received funding: Birr Stage Guild Ltd. received €32,844 under strand 1; Teach Ceoil in Killeagh received €13,496 under strand 3; Laois arts centre received €20,000. I am aware the Deputy has been very supportive of all these local projects and the good news is that I have been able to secure additional capital funding in budget 2018. I hope to be in a position to invite applications for a further round of the scheme in the coming months.
Did Deputy Smyth indicate that she wanted to ask a question?
I have a supplementary question. Have I come in at the wrong time?
I ask the Deputy to be very brief.
It concerns the Creative Ireland programme. I do not mean to sound repetitive but-----
Is the Deputy's query related to the question before the House?
Yes. It is about the Creative Ireland question. With regard to funding, the Minister said it is not a funding issue but I am aware of festivals that received funding through Creative Ireland. Through the simple guise of putting forward an expression of interest they received funding as part of their festival. The Minister cannot say there is not funding going out from Creative Ireland. Separate to the Arts Council and separate to anybody else the Minister's Department and Creative Ireland have been accepting expressions of interest and getting funding based on that. This has not been advertised anywhere.
There were a number of different festivals across the country that received support this past year because we wanted to get Creative Ireland into those festivals-----
So it is a funding agency.
No. I can provide a list to the Deputy. There was a number. The Deputy mentioned Galway, which got funding, and we did that to promote Creative Ireland. We wanted more people to engage with it and get involved in the programme.
It is a funding agency.
No it is not.
51. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the support her Department is providing to local authorities in order to improve access and increase participation in arts and culture at a local level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47866/17]
The Creative Ireland programme is a cross-Government initiative to mainstream culture and creativity in the life of the nation and to promote individual, community and national well-being. As the Deputy may be aware, the programme is based on five pillars: enabling the creative potential of every child, enabling creativity in every community, investing in our creative and cultural infrastructure, establishing Ireland as a centre of excellence in media production and unifying our global reputation.
The second pillar - enabling creativity in every community - is being implemented primarily through our local authorities. This is because local authorities are the primary instruments of community engagement and have a particular capacity for local programme delivery, especially in the context of citizen engagement.
The culture teams already established in each local authority area under pillar 2 have put a considerable amount of work and time into producing local culture and creativity plans for 2017, which were published last May and included a long list of local cultural projects, events and initiatives taking place nationwide.
An allocation of €2 million was made available - €1 million from my Department and €1 million from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government to support the implementation of these plans.
Each local authority is now in the process of drawing up more detailed five year strategic creativity plans, which will be published in early 2018. As part of this development, each culture team is hosting a variety of collaborative workshops, public meetings and discussions across the country to discuss its strategy and future cultural development as well as to listen and respond to local audiences. These strategies will be accompanied by a yearly culture and creativity action plan.
I have already doubled my Department's allocation to the local authority programme in 2018 to €2 million and I look forward to working with the local authorities next year to build on the success of 2017.
I thank the Minister for her reply. The Minister may remember that on her visit to Moate last Saturday, 5 November, there were a number of organisations we visited that day. One was the Moate Performing and Visual Arts Club. They put on a number of performances on that day and the Minister also visited a number of other key areas in Moate. It is important to note that the Minister is strongly living up to her ethos of developing the arts in rural settings and in making it more inclusive. The Moate Performing and Visual Arts Club has applied for funding under stream 3, which has a maximum cap of €20,000. The club is based in the Carmelite Centre in Moate and was set up in 1998. It fosters huge social inclusiveness and develops a number of key areas such as the Dancezone Stage School and the Moate Youth Theatre. The club brings young people onboard in very difficult circumstances. They do great work there and I would be grateful if the Minister could give an update on the stream measures. I also want to note that the teacher Sandra Julian and all her staff do huge work there.
I have fond memories of my trip to Moate, the wonderful Moate Performing and Visual Arts Club and all the young people out and about on the Saturday morning. I remember it well. I know the area has a great local community arts group in them. I visited Moate during a trip to Westmeath last year and I was back in Moate again when the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Deputy Michael Ring, and I launched the action plan for rural development.
The Moate Performing and Visual Arts Club is a perfect example of what we want to see as part of the Creative Ireland programme. It is about young people and creative children who are engaging in the arts in our local communities. That is what I want to see. I am glad to tell the Deputy that the club has been awarded a grant of €16,557, under the final tranche of funding of stream 3 of my Department's arts and culture capital scheme. That will support them in putting in a new heating system - I have to admit that it was very cold there last Saturday morning - and to replace windows, along with other important work they need to do. I will make an official announcement later this evening about this funding, but I thought I would share it with Deputy Burke now.
I thank the Minister for this update. That investment will be a huge asset to rural Ireland and the area covered by the club. The funding will be well spent. The club will get real value for money. They have huge interaction from the community and the club has put on huge performances in Moate. The community really comes out and shows support. I thank the Minister for her time in this case. I had previously advocated a number of times on this matter with the Minister in the Dáil. The Minister has been very forthcoming. These funding streams are essential for rural Ireland to give people a chance to engage in the arts and to ensure that young people receive a vital chance to get interested in the arts. As the society grows, this will stand to it, and as the economy improves it will also be a huge help to us. I thank the Minister for her time.
I thank the Deputy.
I wish to use this opportunity to clarify a point for Deputy Smyth. With regard to Creative Ireland, some funding was set aside to support various high profile and high impact events and initiatives. These were co-curated with key cultural partners and existing prestigious events to communicate and showcase the objectives of the Creative Ireland programme and to encourage increased engagement in creative pursuits across the State. Partnerships were entered into with a good number of events and festivals such as the Baboró international arts festival in Galway, which focuses on children; the Other Voices concert in Belfast; Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in Ennis; the Dublin Theatre Festival; the Kinsale Sharks Festival and the National Ploughing Championships.
These are national events and we benefit from our partnerships with them.
The point being there was no official call out for that company.
