Ms Rosaleen Molloy:

The birth of the Creative Ireland programme resulted in the publication of the Creative Youth programme in 2017, which places children, young people and creativity at the heart of society. Many actions have been identified that will create better access to creativity, in its entirety, for children and young people.

A huge amount of aspiration and ambition was outlined in the Creative Ireland programme, which I think the sector very much welcomes. Apart from that there is a new movement for culture in Ireland. The fundamental gap in music education in Ireland is not new and has existed for decades, namely, the absence of some kind of a music policy that is underpinned by a strong policy on music education. We now know that arts education and arts in education provision in Ireland falls across mainstream provision and non-mainstream provision. All of the organisations here today very much operate outside of the formal education sector. We see musical and cultural citizenship as very important when it comes to adding value to how children and young people experience music and other art forms within mainstream education.

As for a national policy, there have been moves towards that, which come under the umbrella of what the Creative Ireland and Creative Youth programmes are trying to achieve.

When looking at music in Ireland today, the lack of coherent policy is very much felt in children and young people's participation as musical citizens.