Mr. Colm Croffy:

The Association of Irish Festivals and Events is a much younger organisation than the other constituent organisations here today, as represented by my colleagues. It has been in existence for 31 years and represents approximately 700 not-for-profit community festival event organisations on an all-island basis. This is my first time to attend the Oireachtas since Covid-19. As somebody who is noteworthily critical very often of the Government and statutory agencies, I want to take a moment to note that during the pandemic, the State supported arts organisations. This committee, in particular, was very strong in its practical supports for all manner of arts, but especially the performers. Some of the legacy work of various task forces initiated by the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and the Government during that time will greatly add to the achievement of the local arts scene, particularly the basic income for the arts pilot support scheme for artists. To be fair, it is important to note that.

In my briefing material to the committee, I have attached an appendix to my opening statement and a narrative of history. Very often, when we discuss local arts, cultural arts and community arts, there is an assumption that these things did not exist until Todd Andrews established the tourism authority in 1952 and the Arts Council emerged on the scene in the 1960s. However, we have had a much longer engagement with community and local arts than that. I would hate for a discussion led by policymakers here to confine us within those Victorian box sets.

What is often overlooked in any conversation on this matter is that while Government agencies vie at times for their omnipotence or their priority within the local arts sector, from our perspective it is the municipal or local authorities who cumulatively contribute the largest amount of public subsidy to local, cultural and community arts events, driven and focused by local needs but with no overarching policy construct from either the Cabinet, the Government or the Parliament.

I could sit here and talk about cash flow and costs but, realistically, there are other things we need to focus on which might make our lives better as we focus on a future for local and community arts. I will mention some of them briefly.

The diminishing of competent public realm and its practical management since Phil Hogan's reform of local administration is having a significant negative impact on how communities and local groups can use the public realm to celebrate, to convene and to engage. The positive indifference of some local authorities to the need of communities to be helped around the administrative rapids in accessing plazas, squares, parks and streetscapes for their local activities is a negative. The reality of post-Covid volunteer exhaustion in all of our communities, across all aspects of sports and culture, but especially in creating safe and sustainable community events, is a problem. This is something I take no particular enjoyment in saying because I have been involved in this space for 30 years, but other colleagues have mentioned it. The acute and growing dichotomy between the rise of the professional arts administrator and the keen committed voluntary activist, with no appreciation of the ecology of arts practice, audience development and local accent to the narrative presentation, is deeply worrying. We are all familiar with the huge burden of responsibility from statutory processes and regulations, health and safety, duty of care and all of that for those who are trying to produce events pro bono.

Very significant pressures and costs are now associated with local events spaces such as community halls, school assembly halls, theatres, hotels and public buildings, due to a variety of recent and regulatory issues. There are new pressures on community arts and events organisers to bring in new equality, diversity and inclusion policies. Given that other organisations in the realm are not up to speed with some of these issues, this is problematic.

The loss of family firms on our high streets, in pharmacy, grocery, food and hospitality, and even services to national chains, is savagely diminishing the ability of anyone here to attract sponsorship at local level to create a drama festival or a cultural activity. There is a lack of appreciation of all those actors in the sector who view the making of these local events as social enterprises that need to have sustainability at their core.

The huge deadweight of the general data protection regulation, GDPR, when well-intentioned local officials are seeking to adequately share relevant vital information on performers, crafters, musicians and artists within an area, is preventing people from accessing this information and from sharing and networking more. There may also be a lack of urgency in supporting groups within communities and working collaboratively on a strategy to share resources, know-how, equipment and audiences. There is a common misunderstanding that community and local arts events are competing with each other or with the village down the road; in fact, Netflix and the off-licence are our true competitors as we seek to get people out from beyond the hall door to attend our events.

I want to make one comment very pointedly today, which is that the Cinderella of local authority services when it comes to local and community arts is the library service. It is one of those services which over the past decade has been pretty much savaged in the various cuts which have been made. What these libraries do in a safe space for organisations, such as the ones I represent, is phenomenal and is done with very small resources.

The change in the regional media landscape, including provincial newspapers, and the attendant pressures on programming content for all local media, especially local radio, has had a significant impact on how we get our word out there. Obviously, the committee is more well aware than I am that the difficulties in Montrose are not good for what we are doing.

In common with other First World societies, we needs to step away from the post-war outdated view of scaffolding local arts activity for narrow artistic goals. My organisation believes that local arts and community events will increasingly in the future be about platforms for an art form to grow a new audience outreach; the development of labs for innovative ways of presenting, producing, staging and participating; vital tools for exchange of learning and practice, whether it is in song, dance, circus, drama, literature, language or teanga - is cuma liom; cross-generational activities which build positive memories; promoting our communities and our community cohesion, which is going to be very important to this State in the next ten to 15 years, in a safe and welcoming congregated setting; wellness and health, which have been mentioned before; showing ways within local arts to empower and to build new neighbourhoods, with which our society is having to struggle; becoming significant tools for place-making; and becoming barometers of the vibrancy of a place in assisting with inward investment. Given that within the next four years, one in four adults on this island will be over the age of 65, there is nothing better than local community arts activity to maintain them in a vibrant lifestyle. Go raibh míle maith agaibh. I will be happy to take questions.