Ms Patricia Murphy:

I thank the committee and welcome the opportunity to speak to the Public Service Performance Report 2021 for programme areas A, B, D and E of Vote 33 in the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. I understand the Joint Committee on the Irish Language, Gaeltacht, and the Irish-speaking Community will address programme C.

The context in which the Public Service Performance Report 2021 is framed was a year in which the Department's sectors were among those most seriously affected by the Covid-19 crisis. These sectors employ many thousands of people who are vital to Irish society for our individual and community well-being and the national economy. The public health measures necessitated by Covid-19 in 2021 enabled us to protect the most vulnerable in society but had a profound impact on our ability to watch a match, attend a live performance, enjoy a weekend away and participate in the arts and cultural activity. Since the lifting of restrictions, the sectors of the Department have been safely and successfully reopening. However, rising inflation and the war in Ukraine are factors which cast a shadow over the recovery. For the period of the Public Service Performance Report 2021, a key priority was to continue supports for these critical sectors to allow them to stabilise and to assist their recovery.

I draw the committee’s attention to a number of key indicators for 2021 in relation to these sectors, beginning with tourism. In 2021, the huge impact of the pandemic on this sector meant the normal quantitative information on the performance of the sector was not available. However, in line with the Department’s goal to support the tourism industry to grow in a sustainable way, the Department received a budget allocation of almost €221 million. This allowed for the development of new schemes to support the industry, including the tourism business continuity scheme to support tourism businesses' survival through the pandemic and help drive the recovery of tourism, a marketing group scheme to drive significant levels of domestic and overseas business and an outdoor dining enhancement scheme to develop outdoor dining capacity.

In relation to tracking overseas visitor numbers and revenue, it should be noted that the Central Statistics Office, CSO, air and sea port surveys were suspended in March 2020. The CSO is working on a new survey design to significantly improve the quality of the statistics produced from the survey, with the first publication likely to be after the summer period.

In relation to arts and culture, funding totalling €341 million was allocated by the Government to support the sectors in 2021, including €130 million allocated to the Arts Council and €50 million to support the live performance sector. This allowed for the funding of 897 arts organisations in 2021, as well as an increase in the number of individual artists funded from 700 to 2,202.

In terms of live performance supports, the funding allocation provided for the following. Under the live performance support scheme, capital, over 19,000 days of employment were created; under the live performance support scheme, current, approximately 53,000 days of employment were created; under the local live performance support scheme, LLPSS, all 31 local authorities participated and more than 5,500 individual artists, performers and workers benefited; under the music and entertainment business assistance scheme, MEBAS, 1,088 grants were approved for applicants across the industry; and under the events sector Covid support scheme, ESCSS, over 480 grants were approved to those supplying services in the events sector. In addition, Culture Ireland supported 1,560 artists to present 221 projects.

With regard to sports and recreation services, the Covid-19 pandemic also had a material impact on the levels of participation in sport and physical activity in 2021 as gatherings were restricted for a significant portion of the year. The pandemic also impacted significantly on drawdown rates in respect of the sports capital and equipment programme and the large-scale sport infrastructure fund. Funding totalling €205 million was allocated by the Government to support the sport and recreation sectors in 2021, including almost €140 million allocated to Sport Ireland.

Additional funding of €73.6 million was allocated to help sports organisations to recover and grow post pandemic, support the grassroots networks of clubs and local sports partnerships and ensure that people of all ages and abilities return to sport and physical activity. This funding included field sports funding, a resilience fund for the national governing bodies and a sports club resilience fund, a swimming pool and facilities fund and a resumption of sport and physical activities fund.

With regard to equality budgeting, 2021 saw increased expenditure in respect of the women in sport funding programmes to ensure opportunities continue to be provided for women to participate in sport and support female involvement across the four target areas of coaching and officiating, active participation, leadership and governance, and visibility.

In broadcasting, funding totalling €280 million was allocated to the broadcasting sector in 2021 with all broadcasting targets being met. This included RTÉ expenditure on independently produced television and radio programmes of almost €40 million, as well as an average of 13.45 broadcast hours of Irish language programming per day.

The Department recognises the key role its sectors play in equality, well-being and sustainability across Irish society. The focus of the work of the Department is in supporting the development of these sectors and assisting to improve the well-being of citizens. We thank the committee for the opportunity to speak about the overall positive performance of the Department, as published in the Public Service Performance Report 2021, and look forward to addressing any questions its members may have.