Ms Orlaith McBride:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting the Arts Council to the meeting today. Most people would be aware that our role is to fund and develop the arts in Ireland and also to act as an expert body offering advice to the Government, the Oireachtas and other State organisations. I would like to start by dispelling the notion we so often hear, that the arts are some sort of luxury or add-on in a society and that they are only available to those who can afford them. We are all familiar with the argument of the arts versus hospital beds - some of us are exhausted trying to make that argument. Often, members of the Arts Council feel obliged to address this because the arts are often overlooked and not considered part of our daily lives. This is not true. The arts are completely embedded and integrated into the lives of all our citizens.

If I asked the members of the committee when was the last time they or someone in their families were involved in an arts experience, the default might be to say the last time they went to the theatre or an opera. However, all of us probably read a book last night. We probably all listened to music on our way to work this morning. Some of us may have dropped our children to piano lessons yesterday afternoon or to ballet or Irish dancing. Many of us might be involved in our local choir or drama group. The arts are completely embedded in all of our lives. It is not just about the Abbey Theatre or Gate Theatre. When there is a local arts festival in the committee members' communities, when there are street performances during the summer months, when the local drama group is putting on Sive yet again at the local arts centre, when an artist is working with children in schools or a memory project is carried out using music and song with older people in a local residential care home - these are all arts experiences.

The arts have an intrinsic value, a social and community benefit and also a very valid economic benefit as they contribute to our local economies. There is much research and data confirming that the arts contribute to job creation and to the local and national economy as well as playing a very powerful role in contributing to the international perception of Ireland as a creative and innovative place to locate in terms of foreign direct investment. The arts are part of our social and community benefit and are also a net contributor to our local and national economy.

We can prove this, and do so on an annual basis. In recent years we asked Indecon, headed up by Mr. Alan Gray, one of our most respected and rigorous economists, to assess the economic impact of the arts in Ireland. Here are some of the things he has proven, which we have also heard from all the other contributors.

The arts contribute significantly to direct and indirect employment. The Arts Council's annual funding from the Exchequer alone supports over 2,000 jobs, generating an annual turnover of more than €180 million with tax revenues to the Exchequer of €42 million. The wider arts sector supports more than 20,000 jobs, and contributes more than €0.33 billion in taxes. As we heard earlier, the arts also impact on the creative industries, including film and video, publishing, advertising, software, radio and television, contributing €4.7 billion to the economy and supporting 77,000 jobs. In terms of the economic impact studies that we in the Arts Council have conducted as a State agency, that is the national picture.

At local level, we can see the arts providing and sustaining jobs. The arts are part of every local community and local economy. The local arts centre, theatre, dance space, exhibition space, cinema or bookshop employ real people who come in and roll up the shutters every morning. They are going down the town for lunch, they are using the local post office, they are sending their children to the local school and they are buying homes.

The Arts Council invests millions in touring the arts so that people in different parts of the country can see the great work that is being done by our artists and arts organisations. When that happens we are not only creating jobs, but generating bed nights in the local bed and breakfast, pints are bought in the pub, etc. The arts are integrated into all of the local economies. They are not something that is divorced from the rest of society.

We work hard with local authorities and one of the recommendations I would make arising out of this meeting today would be that we need to look at strategic partnerships. All the other contributors have cited specific strategic partnerships where, if Government policy was at a much more integrated level, one could see that smarter investment would be made. We have had a strategic partnership with all the local authorities around the country since 1985 and our relationship with the local authorities has utterly transformed the arts in Ireland. Over the ten-year period from 2005 to 2014, we have invested a combined sum of €1 billion in the arts right across the country. There is not a town or community in this country that is unaffected by the arts. Local government reform places social, community and economic development as the key functions of all local authorities and enterprise is a critical part of that. Local authorities have recognised the role the arts can play in supporting them to deliver on these functions, but also in supporting the local economy.

In 2013, Wexford County Council commissioned a report by Dr. Richard Maloney from UCC entitled Creative Dividends: The Economic Impact of Wexford County Council's Support of the Arts Sector. For direct financial support by Wexford County Council of €0.86 million, the overall economic impact in County Wexford was €9.35 million. They supported 100.5 full-time equivalent jobs, €1.01 million in various taxes paid to the Exchequer and a further €0.34 million in indirect activity. For every €1 that Wexford County Council invested in artists and arts organisations, there was an associated impact of €7.83 in the local economy.

Festivals are the lifeblood of tourism the length and breadth of the country. The Arts Council invests over €3 million directly in festivals around the country. There are 160 small festivals that we support, as well as all of our larger festivals. Festivals are important to the local community, but they also mean jobs.

Some 80% overseas visitors state that culture and heritage are motivating factors for choosing to visit Ireland. Visitors come to Ireland in some significant measure because of our cultural reputation. Fáilte Ireland will say that visitors seek a differentiated experience in an increasingly globalised and homogenised world. Fáilte Ireland knows how vital festivals are to tourism and how they market Ireland abroad. The arts are at the heart of many of those festivals and they are at the heart of what makes Ireland distinctive. Certainly, it is not the climate that they are coming to Ireland for; they are coming here for something else.

We contend that differentiated experience of the arts and broader culture can contribute. For example, the Wexford Festival Opera generated a total of €6.6 million of gross domestic product, GDP, in Ireland in 2012. It contributes to 208 direct, indirect and induced jobs in Ireland, which represents 20 times the staff of the organisation.

We invest approximately €250,000 a year in Spraoi in Waterford, which Fáilte Ireland says is worth a minimum of €3 million to the local economy. We invest approximately €500,000 per year in the Galway Arts Festival. Last year its economic impact study demonstrated that €17.5 million was put back into the local economy. The Arts Council invests €235,000 in the West Cork Music Festival. It has 13,000 visitor bed nights during that period and the visitor spend is approximately €1.5 million. This shows how the arts and the broader culture sector contribute to economic development.