Tom Neville
Ceist:60. Deputy Tom Neville asked the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the work of the culture teams in each local authority; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47883/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 14 November 2017
Ceisteanna (60)
Freagraí scríofa
Pillar Two of the Creative Ireland Programme – Enabling creativity in every community – is being implemented primarily through the local authorities who, as the primary instruments of community engagement, have a particular capacity for engaging citizens.
The Culture Teams established in each local authority area under this pillar have put a considerable amount of work and time into producing local Culture and Creativity Plans for 2017 which were published last May.
A key operating principle underpinning the Creative Ireland Programme is community empowerment and therefore each local authority decided themselves what events/projects they wished to include in their respective plans. In total, the plans listed over 750 local cultural projects, events and initiatives taking place nationwide in 2017 giving us a snapshot of the rich cultural activity taking place in each country.
The plans also stimulated conversation and debate around the Creative Ireland Programme at a local level.
An allocation of €2m was made available (€1m from my Department and €1m 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 a more detailed five-year Strategic Creativity Plans which will be published in early 2018. As part of this development, each Culture Team are hosting a variety of collaborative workshops, public meetings and discussions across the country to discuss these strategies, 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 own Department's allocation to the Local Authority Programme in 2018 to €2m and I look forward to working with the local authorities next year to build on the success of 2017.