Mr. Kieran Kehoe:

I am a director of services with Waterford City and County Council. I am accompanied by my colleague, Ms Jane Cantwell, who is our head of arts and culture and our city and county librarian as well. I thank the committee for its invitation, and look forward to assisting in discussions on the development of local and community arts through our experiences in Waterford.

Waterford City and County Council has a long tradition in acknowledging the pivotal role of the arts and culture in supporting communities across our city and county. This is reflected in the substantial investment by Waterford City and County Council across a range of festivals and supports to artists, arts organisations and venues.

It is also reflected in the long-term sustainability of many of the festivals and events that take place throughout the year. Support for the arts service, the library service, Creative Ireland and our ongoing investment in developing and sustaining a thriving cultural quarter in the centre of Waterford city has created a vibrant range of supports for professional and amateur arts practitioners, individuals and community groups in Waterford.

Waterford's overall allocation for festivals for 2023 is €1.55 million. In 2022, five significant festivals - we term them "flagship festivals" - were approved by the council, guaranteeing them funding for a period of three years. Our highly successful winter festival, Winterval, the street art festival run by Spraoi, which is now in its 31st year, the unique and highly regarded Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, the thriving West Waterford Festival of Food and the Waterford Walls Festival have all been designated as flagship festivals. Council support has been critical to the success and recognition of these festivals at national and international levels.

Waterford City and County Council excels in the development and provision of arts programmes that go on to have a long-standing influence on the community and beyond. These are managed through our arts office, the cultural quarter and our library service. Libraries have a particularly unique place in our communities across the county as venues, facilitators and hosts for artistic activity and free access to the arts, literature and many programmes and events. Through the arts office, more than €90,000 is allocated annually to arts practice grants, which directly support artists and organisations. Waterford Youth Arts, the Waterford Healing Arts Trust and many others are supported and mentored through the arts office. Arts venue funding for a number of important venues such as the Theatre Royal, Garter Lane, the GOMA Gallery and the Coastguard Cultural Centre in Tramore was increased to more than €170,000 for 2023. Significant investment in Waterford city's cultural quarter is yielding results, with the reimagining of buildings in the area into community and cultural hubs, work spaces for creative industries and the development of a new art house as studios and residential spaces for artists. This has been supported significantly through the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, capital funding programme. The Waterford Gallery of Art's move to the cultural quarter provides access to Waterford's municipal art collection at the heart of the city's cultural offering.

Our submission has outlined key projects covering the areas of interest to the committee, including arts and older people, arts and cultural diversity, arts and health and our support for under-represented communities. The volume, quality and reach of these projects across a wide demographic speak for themselves. In Waterford, our ongoing investment in festivals and a range of cultural, creative and artistic programmes is an indication of our belief in their value in building cohesive and sustainable local communities. Where funding becomes available, for example, under local live performance programme schemes over the past two years, our teams have risen to the challenge and provided not only spectacular public events such as the Winter Firedance, but also supported artists, performers and technicians at a time when they most needed that financial support. We have been doing this for a long time and intend to continue doing it for a long time more.