Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will first address the arts in education. I increased resources for the Arts Council by 8%, to €65 million, in 2017. The Arts Council has, in turn, increased its funding for the children-related initiatives from €3.1 million to €3.7 million. I thank Deputy Niamh Smyth for her comments. We are working very closely with the Departments of Education and Skills and Children and Youth Affairs. The teacher training scheme has been extended to provide training for the largest number of teachers this year and it has gone from six centres in 2013 to all 21 education and training centres being involved now. That is progress. Teachers are being trained in terms of the arts offering. I visited Scoil Éanna in Ballybay two weeks ago and spoke to two teachers who had undergone the training and who were very happy with the training they received. Now, however, it is about delivering for children on the ground. This year, I have also been involved with the national arts in education day. I met art teachers from across the country and listened to their views on pillar 1 of Creative Ireland, which is about enabling the creative potential of every child. The feedback from them was positive.

Every local authority has been given €65,000 for its Creative Ireland programme this year. This has supported a wide variety of events, including Creative Ireland events at local level. Many of these were targeted at children and young people. Events such as Culture Night and Cruinniú na Cásca are also family-orientated and designed to get young people involved. Many things are happening in that space - with the different agencies across interdepartmental lines involved - in terms of getting the right environment so that young people can access, participate in and enjoy the arts. The next step is the Creative Children plan, which will be launched later this year. It is the first time the three Departments have come together.

The Deputy mentioned ring-fencing arts funding within local authorities. I accept what she is saying. Sometimes if there is a cut in funding, the first place that gets cut is the arts budget. I can only encourage local authorities, which, in fairness, have done a huge amount in setting up their culture teams. The process is director-led within local authorities. Again, it is about encouraging them to see that engagement in the arts is good for people and society. These culture teams are set up. By continuing to elevate the importance of the arts across the country in every local authority area, it instills in them the need to maintain those budgets but the Deputy knows that I cannot tell them to ring-fence their budgets. That is something I cannot do.

Local authorities are independent in what they do.

On the creative industries and the local enterprise offices, LEOs, as the Deputy will know that these offices are part of local authorities. It is for them to decide how to allocate their budgets. While I would like to see them invest more in the creative industries, I cannot tell them what to do. We can only encourage them and keep pointing out the benefits of investment in the arts and in the creative industries.

To answer the Deputy's question on the budget for Creative Ireland, I will break it down for her. The budget was kept under review. Some €5 million was allocated for the Creative Ireland programme. It is important to say that Creative Ireland is not involved solely with my Department, it is across all of Government. Some Departments have a bigger role to play, such as the Department of Children and Youth Affairs in-----