Ms Tania Banotti:

On Cruinniú na nÓg, Ireland is the only country to have a national day of free creative activities for children and young people. Although it may seem strange, the pandemic was, ironically, the making of it. Given the extraordinary success of the RTÉ Home School Hub, with 400,000 children tuning in, RTÉ, ourselves and the local authorities partnered up. It has been a very interesting process. Obviously, young people have been very affected during the pandemic and have faced particular challenges. We thought long and hard about various things we could offer to children, young people and their families.

I will provide two simple examples of how it took off like a rocket. One initiative invited people to organise céilithe in their kitchens. There were lots of videos on storytelling, tunes and learning to play the tin whistle or Irish dance. The video on how to organise a céilí in one's kitchen received 1.6 million views. Through Fighting Words, the wonderful organisation set up by Roddy Doyle, we invited children to participate in creative writing. We were taken aback by the response. There will be four publications resulting from this initiative alone. We could not believe the number of entries. We were really moved by the creativity of young people.

I know the Deputy is from County Cork. He may be aware of the tiny rural school in Cappabue which made a film about climate change that went global. The school was our ambassador this year. There is a lot of discussion on online content. The view of the Creative Ireland programme is that less is more, but the young people in that school made an extraordinary film about the creative things they were doing in County Cork and it has been incredibly popular.

I wish to send a big shout out to the local authorities that responded very imaginatively to the problems we faced. There are challenges in the context of local authorities. The groups that appeared before the committee in its most recent session expressed concern regarding the financial crisis facing them and that the local authorities may cut back on funding for arts and culture. That is certainly a worry. The Creative Ireland programme has guaranteed its funding to local authorities. The culture teams in the local authorities have been at the heart of the community call during the pandemic and they have responded very imaginatively to it. The example set by Cruinniú na nÓg gave young people an opportunity during lockdown to try things they may not have tried previously. They certainly had more time on their hands. It has been a real lesson for us. Some local authorities, particularly those in more rural parts of the country such as County Donegal, had far more participation this year than last. Hosting 500 events while under a 5 km lockdown was astonishing.

On the issue of an initiative for older people, the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, will be making an announcement in that regard in the coming weeks. The Creative Ireland programme is working intensively with the HSE and Healthy Ireland to roll out a specific programme of creative activities for those who are cocooning. That will cover nursing homes, hospitals, community care settings and home care settings.

We are looking at imaginatively bringing that work to people who may be cocooning, with the added benefit of paid work for artists and creative people to year end.

Reference was made to bureaucracy. That is obviously a matter for the Arts Council but the council has spoken about trying to simplify its application procedures.

The €20 million must be spent by the end of the year under the public spending code. The sheer practicalities of getting that money to people will necessitate probably a simplification of the procedures, but the council has already indicated it plans to do that.