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

Go raibh maith agat. As Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, I am pleased to have this opportunity to address the committee in regard to the performance expenditure and targets of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs during the first half of 2017.

As members are aware, responsibility for the regional development and rural affairs functions of my Department transferred to the new Department of Rural and Community Development with effect from 27 July 2017 and my Department was renamed the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht with effect from 1 August 2017.

The report provided by my Department outlines details of performance and expenditure across all programme areas during the first half of 2017. The 2017 Revised Estimates provides for a gross allocation of more than €368 million for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in 2017.In additional, a further €13.548 million in capital funding was carried over from the 2016 provision.

Gross total expenditure incurred by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in the period to 30 June 2017 was €143 million - this expenditure represents 39% of the overall 2017 gross allocation. In addition, the sum of €3.478 million has been expended in this period in respect of the capital carryover provision from 2016.

For my Department, 2017 has been a very significant year. The heightened sense of identity, pride and goodwill generated by the very successful Ireland 2016 centenary programme has been harnessed and further developed as part of Creative Ireland - a whole-of-Government legacy initiative aligned with Culture 2025 - Éire Ildánach and framed within the programme for a partnership Government.

The core proposition is that engagement with and participation in arts and culture drives personal and collective creativity with significant implications for individual and societal well-being and achievement. My colleague, the Government Chief Whip and Minister of State, Deputy McHugh, and I will now speak about the highlights of each programme area during the first half of 2017. We will commence with the arts, culture and film programme and are happy to expand later on any matter members may wish to raise.

In programme A, more than €158 million is provided in 2017 for arts, culture and film, with a further €11.548 million provided by way of capital carryover. Total gross expenditure for programme A up to 30 June 2017 was €77.621 million, that is, 49% of the 2017 programme allocation.

Due to the scale and complexity of once-off aspects of both the capital and current programmes, some adjustments have been made to allocations within this programme. For example, savings have arisen in subhead A7, cultural infrastructure and development, due to a combination of outside factors, as well as in subhead A16, Cork event centre, which has not progressed as promptly as anticipated. Sanction has been received from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to use these savings to address emerging pressures in other programme areas.

I have already made reference to the Creative Ireland programme but I would now like to address this initiative in a little more detail. As I have already mentioned, it is a whole-of-Government initiative, led by my Department, which places creativity at the centre of public policy. It aims to bring an enhanced level of co-ordination, focus and leadership to existing policies and initiatives across national and local government, State agencies, the arts and culture sector, Gaeltacht and Irish language organisations.

Under the initiative, culture teams have been established in each local authority to promote culture and creativity and 31 local culture and creativity plans for 2018 were published in May 2017. The inaugural Cruinniú na Cásca, a day of cultural events and programmes, was celebrated across the country on Easter Monday 2017. A social welfare pilot programme for writers and artists was launched in June to make it easier for such individuals to access social welfare supports.

A number of launches are scheduled under the Creative Ireland programme for later this year, including a capital investment programme for the culture and heritage sector and a creative children programme to enable every child in Ireland to access tuition in music, drama, art and coding - this is a joint initiative with the Departments of Education and Skills and Children and Youth Affairs.

The National Gallery of Ireland re-opened its doors to the public in June 2017 on completion of a €30 million investment project to provide much-needed environmental upgrades and new exhibition spaces. The public response to the new and improved spaces has been overwhelming positive, with the gallery reporting an 89% increase in visitor numbers over the period June to August 2017 compared with 2016. The new cultural and heritage centre at the Bank of Ireland, College Green is progressing well, with a building hand over anticipated by the end of this year. An exhibition on Seamus Heaney by the National Library of Ireland will open in the centre in 2018. The design phase of the phased capital investment plan for the Kildare Street premises of the library is under way in partnership with the Office of Public Works, OPW.

I was very pleased to announce more than €10 million in funding under the arts and culture capital scheme in 2017. A total of 62 arts and culture centres across the country benefitted from funding under strands 1 and 2 of the scheme, which I announced in February, while a further 60 local arts organisations benefitted under strand 3 of the scheme, which I announced in August 2017.

The national cultural institutions continued to attract a large number of visitors through their doors to sample the many and varied treasures on display — total visitors in the first half of 2017 were just under 1.7 million.

I am happy to expand on any issues members would like to raise in respect of this programme area before proceeding.