Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh míle maith agat a Chathaoirligh. Táim thar a bheith sásta bheith libh chun labhairt faoi tosaíochtaí straitéiseacha na Roinne. I intend to address the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, and Media while my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jack Chambers, will address matters related to sport. I understand that matters relating to the Gaeltacht will be dealt with by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Irish Language, Gaeltacht and Irish-speaking Community.

I am pleased to have this further opportunity to address the committee on the key priorities of my Department and to set out the vision for these wide-ranging and valuable sectors. I spoke to the committee last about my priorities in April this year. At that time, I said that these sectors contribute significantly to our country’s economy, while also supporting individual and community well-being right across Ireland. However, there is no doubt that the diverse range of sectors served by my Department have been, and continue to be, amongst those most severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. These sectors are fundamental to societal well-being. They encourage public confidence and our collective resilience as we continue to emerge from the pandemic over the longer term. They also remain among the most vulnerable to the cruel unpredictability of this devastating disease. It has been said many times that they were the first to close and last to reopen. A key priority has been to continue supports for these critical sectors, which employ hundreds of thousands of people, in order that they can stabilise and generate economic activity as we move further along the road to recovery.

During 2021, the €55 million support fund announced as part of budget 2021 for strategic tourism businesses, and the €5 million for training and digitalisation support in the sector, continued to be provided. These measures have complemented the horizontal measures employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS; the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP; the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS; and the restart scheme. I also launched a €17 million outdoor dining enhancement scheme, which is delivered in partnership between Fáilte Ireland and local authorities across the country.

For the coming year, €288.5 million is allocated for tourism services, which represents an increase of €67.6 million, or 31%, on the comparable 2021 allocation. The additional funding will help to address immediate survival-related concerns for business continuity, domestic and international marketing, and support for tourism product development, while also enabling further resilience and recovery across the industry as we reopen to international tourism and transition to a more sustainable future.

I was very cognisant of the challenges the restrictions caused for the arts, culture and live entertainment industry in 2021, and I allocated more than €60 million to support the sector and drive employment opportunities for artists and crew through the introduction of several new schemes. Those included the provision of support for live entertainment businesses, encompassing a new live performance support scheme, a new support scheme for live events and entertainment businesses, and funding to support local authorities for outdoor live performances. As part of budget 2022, I maintained the Arts Council allocation at the record level of €130 million. This allocation will allow the Arts Council to continue to protect the jobs and livelihoods of artists and assist arts organisations through financial difficulties. With these ongoing levels of public funding in 2022, the Arts Council is empowered to play a strong role in supporting artists and arts organisations to flourish in the years ahead.

I have also allocated €25 million for the live entertainment sector as part of budget 2022, and I am examining the supports in place for the sector to ensure available resources are best deployed to meet the needs of the sector to ensure a full recovery is possible. The supports provided have been essential for those hardest-hit, and I will continue to do everything possible to ensure necessary provisions are in place to allow these sectors, which are essential for our physical, social and mental well-being, to thrive once again.

Regarding my Department’s capital programme, I worked closely with colleagues across Government to renew our national development plan. The programme for Government makes strong commitments to continued capital investment in our national cultural, sporting, language and tourism infrastructure. My priorities under the renewed national development plan are aligned under three categories of activities my Department undertakes to support and develop its sectors: supporting economic recovery and resilience, promoting well-being and social cohesion, and providing sustainability and guardianship of our cultural, linguistic and environmental resources.

A key priority for my Department is the continued safeguarding and modernisation of institutions through the national cultural institutions, NCI, investment programme in the national development plan, NDP. This is an ambitious €460 million programme of capital investment across all our NCIs which will ensure they can continue their legacy of providing engaging cultural and artistic offerings to the people. The national development plan also includes €265 million for a cultural and creativity investment programme. The large-scale sports infrastructure fund and sports capital and equipment programme are also key elements of my Department’s NDP plans, which will be further addressed by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers.

As we continue the recovery, my Department will work to deliver on priorities that are informed by the programme for Government. My Department’s key priorities for economic recovery are also informed by the tourism and arts and culture recovery task forces, which were established to provide recommendations for overcoming the challenges faced by these critical sectors. Ireland’s tourism sector is of significant value to the economy and benefits the development of rural Ireland, especially in regions that lack an intensive industry base or are economically fragile. For tourism, recovery and sustainable growth are essential. This will begin with a survival, stabilisation and recovery programme informed by the recommendations of the tourism recovery task force as well as inputs from the tourism recovery oversight group. I continue to work on the development of a national tourism policy that will set out the path over the coming years towards ascertaining that we have a tourism sector that is socially and economically sustainable and that ensures sustainability is at the heart of the recovery in the sector.

This policy will be underpinned by a programme of capital investment as we develop our national tourism product. This investment programme will take a regions-led approach and will include investments in activity-based tourism, with a particular emphasis on the outdoors, and the development of strategic tourism locations. As well as investing in our tourism product, these investments will provide important supports for regional enterprise and employment, and these are often located in areas where tourism is a key driver of the local economy. The significant increase in funding for this sector provides an opportunity to reimagine and reconfigure Ireland’s tourism for the future. With the climate emergency as our backdrop, we must also play our part. The future we imagine is one that will tell the story of our ancient past and our current modern communities, and one that will bring tourists and tourism businesses on a journey towards a sustainable model that embeds and protects our environment, local communities, natural heritage and beauty.

Turning to our arts and culture sector, last year the arts and culture recovery task force submitted to me its report, entitled Life worth Living, which outlined ten recommendations to support the recovery of these sectors. We have made significant progress already on implementing the report. For example, I was particularly pleased to announce €25 million for the pilot basic income guarantee scheme as part of budget 2022. This is a major policy intervention for the arts and culture sector that requires significant resources from my Department to develop. Work is ongoing and regular engagement with the sector is taking place. My ambition is to open the pilot scheme for applications early next year. I believe this makes a strong statement about the value we place on the arts sector, where employment is characterised by low, precarious and sometimes seasonal income. Artistic and creative work is intrinsically valuable to society, and perhaps never more so felt than during this pandemic. I hope this scheme can bring new life and support to the arts and culture sector, and I hope it will provide an important legacy for our artists after the difficult circumstances they have endured during the crisis.

The report of the night-time economy task force was published in September and contained several practical recommendations to help support and sustain the night-time economy as well as some pilot measures to support new developments in this area. Work is also ongoing on the flagship digitisation of the 1926 census records this year, which will provide a further valuable set of records for genealogists across our global Irish community. My Department has a range of key priorities in this area and I look forward to discussing them with the committee. These include support for culture activities in the State-supported and commercial sectors, in which the Arts Council will play a central role. My Department also continues to work on supporting the creative industries, including the audiovisual sector. A key priority in this area will be the continued implementation of the audiovisual action plan over the coming years.

It is a priority of my Department to address the future of broadcasting and media in this country and to safeguard the availability of quality, informed and trusted sources of news and content that are so essential to a democratic society. I am very aware of the important role played by the broadcasting and media sector in delivering key and necessary public health messages in recent times. Some examples of measures in budget 2022 to support this sector include the additional €4.2 million funding I secured for TG4 for 2022, which is the largest ever annual increase in TG4 funding, and the €5.5 million allocated for the media commission. This funding will be used for the setting up and commencement of the media commission’s functions, to recruit an online safety commissioner and to lay the groundwork for an effective regulatory structure. The spread and amplification of harmful online content raises serious concerns, and this will help us close a gap in Irish and international law concerning online safety.

Regarding the enabling legislation for the online safety and media regulation Bill, I also thank this committee for the publication of a comprehensive pre-legislative scrutiny report on the general scheme of the online safety and media regulation Bill. The 33 recommendations contained in the report raise a wide range of important issues and highlight the scale and complexity of the matters to be addressed in the Bill. I commend the thorough and consultative approach taken by the committee in conducting its pre-legislative scrutiny. It represents a continuity of the approach in developing the general scheme, which involved public consultation and significant stakeholder engagement. I am closely considering all the recommendations. Some deal with issues I have been examining for some time, and this includes how the Bill can be further strengthened to better protect individuals online, including by addressing issues relating to the appropriate avenues of complaint or redress. I intend to progress the Bill as a matter of urgency following the current consideration.

Tourism, culture, arts, our language, sport and media are fundamental to our society, identity, well-being and democracy. As Minister with responsibility in this area, I will continue to advocate intensely for these sectors, as we all understand there is still much work left to do. I will also continue consulting with the sectors and assessing supports in that regard. We are operating in the shadow of Covid-19 and our recovery will not be easy. It will not happen overnight, but I am confident Ireland will recover. Our world-renowned tourism industry will welcome visitors back better than ever; our vibrant arts and culture sector will flourish again, showcasing our incredible talents both at home and abroad; we will have a rich landscape in which our language can continue to grow; and we will see our dynamic sports and media sectors strengthened, reinforced and supported. This will require a long-term approach, and all of us here understand these sectors are critical to our lives. I am deeply committed to supporting and realising this strategic vision.

I am happy to take any questions members may have later, but I will hand over to the Minister of State now.