Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá roint ceisteanna agam. I will not raise questions that have already been covered but some questions I wish to raise have not been touched on. One concerns museum funding for both the National Museum of Ireland and the local museums. We had presentations from local museums before the committee earlier this year and they raised a number of issues. Some raised increasing insurance costs, a matter which is probably out of the Minister's hands. While insurance matters, as such, are a private matter for companies, in many cases these are small rural museums but there are also some in the city that have increased costs because sometimes they display priceless objects or artifacts that have a price tag which increases their insurance cover. Small museums find it difficult to cover insurance costs if they do not have a significant footfall and an independent benefactor to keep their doors open to provide the service they deliver. Has consideration been given in the culture budget to finding a mechanism to provide group insurance schemes for museums? If so, it could also address the needs in some of the other cultural institutions mentioned earlier.

The programme funding for the National Museum of Ireland was €13 million. That seems large but a number of acquisitions, for instance, would put a big dent in that pot. That is usually what the museum is seeking and it also has a big programme. I have had communications with the Minister and the museum on expanding its exhibition space and putting more of its archived artifacts on display. That funding, while it appears substantial is small in comparison, for instance, to the funding for the Arts Council, An Chomhairle Ealaíon, or even the funding available for the very worthwhile Galway 2020 programme, which is less than it but it is large considering it is a one-off programme. Is the funding for the national cultural institutions and, in particular, the National Museum of Ireland because it has the highest number of visitors, large enough or does the Minister believe it is hampering those institutions' abilities to respond to demand?

Another area I wish to raise does not come directly under the culture heading as such but it does come under in a way in that Screen Ireland comes under it, which I wish well. Funding in that area is increasing and, hopefully, it will deliver a more sustainable film industry into the future, which the committee has discussed here previously and which the Minister has discussed in the Dáil Chamber. We have permission from the EU with respect to tax reliefs for the industry up to 2020. Tax relief is tax foregone in some ways but we must attract a specific element of the film industry, multinationals or the big companies from abroad to make their big films in Ireland. We have had good news on that front in recent times, but we need to examine how we can build a sustainable film industry which has directly employed workers. If, in 2023 or 2024, the EU says such tax relief can no longer be granted, we must find a mechanism whereby the State can fund that directly. Would that be through increased funding for Screen Ireland?

I have a question on the spend on the Decade of Centenaries since its inception and its forerunners. I was a member of the all-party committee which advised the advisers or the Minister in that respect. The allocation of €1 million to celebrate the centenary events in 2019, is minuscule. Also, the allocation of €10,000 to local authorities in that respect is derisory. The local authorities are encouraged to put their own funding with that allocation. However, given the number of local historical groups and the great interest that was shown when the last round of funding was available in 2016, that funding allocation needs to be greatly increased to encourage local organisations to organise events beyond just those of local interest so that they can attract people from outside their locality to help make sense of, celebrate and commemorate what happened 100 years ago.

The Minister attended a number of events organised by local organisations, such as the one in Soloheadbeg. Those events cost much more than would have been available if that €10,000, which would have been the full amount for that county, had been given to the organisations in question. Funding needs to substantially increase if we are to do justice to the events that shaped Ireland's history from 2019 onwards.