Ms Liz Meaney:

I am the arts director for the performing arts at the Arts Council. I am joined by Ms Seóna Ní Bhriain, head of young people and children in education. I am also joined by Mr. Ross Curran and Ms Laura Keogh who have been kindly seconded to the Arts Council by the Department of Education and Skills. They are working with us on our Creative Schools programme, placing educational expertise at the heart of the work of the Arts Council in this important area.

The Arts Council welcomes the joint committee's consideration of this issue. We take the opportunity to expand on our presentation committee members have received. We welcome the opportunity to discuss with the committee the insights and perspectives of members on arts and education.

The Arts Council is Ireland's development agency for the arts. The arts are for us and citizens throughout the country a central feature of our shared civic life. They require and merit continuous support nationally, internationally and locally. The support of the State, to the tune of €68 million in 2018, enables the Arts Council to provide funding for a range of artists and arts organisations throughout the country. Our support encompasses individual artists, musicians, writers, dancers and arts organisations, including Druid, the Cork Midsummer Festival and the Irish Writers Centre. It provides opportunities for people to encounter and engage with the arts. This could be in a building such as the Ark children's cultural centre or one of the 155 small festivals we will fund in 2018. They range from the Skibbereen Arts Festival to Rosses Point Shanty Festival. As has been mentioned, we also support local government. We work with young people and children. That is a key focus of our partnership with local government.

We have recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the County and City Management Association and we will proceed to do so now with every local authority throughout the country. That local support and infrastructure of expertise is a key connection point to support and build expertise in arts and education but also in many other areas of practice.

Our work includes research, policy development and the measurement of impacts, as has been mentioned and about which Ms Ní Bhriain will speak further. Research is a critical part of informing our work into the future and measuring our work in the past. We are a learning organisation with specialist arts expertise. We welcome moments such as this where public conversation allows us to bring forward a critical policy area.

Ireland is a country in which creativity abounds and we welcome working across Government as a partner in the Creative Ireland Programme. We must continue to expand and enrich our support for artists and arts organisations, those who make art. It is upon their work that we rightly base our confidence that our children and young people are growing up in a country which has culture and the arts at its heart. Ms Ní Bhriain will now talk in more detail about her work in the area of arts and education. However, it is critical we see this work as part of a larger project and as ongoing work to ensure we as a country support and develop the arts.