Ms Colette Drinan:

The 2021 Appropriation Account for Vote 33 - Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media had total gross expenditure of almost €1.1 billion. This was distributed across five expenditure programmes, and included funding for a wide range of downstream agencies tasked with distributing grant assistance for activities and development in their respective areas. These bodies are listed in an appendix to the appropriation account.

The Department spent almost €222 million under the tourism services programme, of which €122 million went to Fáilte Ireland. Spending on the arts and culture programme amounted to €313 million. Some €130 million went to support the operations of the Arts Council. A further €122 million went towards the recurrent funding of museums, galleries and other national and regional cultural institutions.

Screen Ireland received funding of €30 million in the year.

Expenditure on the Gaeltacht programme totalled €73 million. Payments to support the work of Údarás na Gaeltachta totalled €32 million, including €14 million made available for grants for projects and capital expenditure on premises. Expenditure on the sports and recreation services programme in 2021 was €207 million. This included €165 million in funding to Sport Ireland. The Department spent €272 million under the broadcasting programme. Some €237 million was expended on grants to RTÉ and TG4 to fund their public service broadcasting commitments. Also included in the broadcasting programme is expenditure of almost €24 million paid to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, for the broadcasting fund.

On the receipts side, appropriations-in-aid amounted to €235 million in 2021, of which €221 million was in relation to television licence fee receipts. The surplus remaining at the year-end was €41 million. The Department got the agreement of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to carry over €18 million in unspent capital funding to 2022. The balance of €23 million was due for surrender to the Central Fund of the Exchequer.

The Comptroller and Auditor General issued a clear audit opinion in respect of the appropriation account. However, the audit report draws attention to chapter 4 of the report on the accounts of the public services for 2021. This examined compliance with the procedures for reallocation of funding between Vote subheads in a number of Votes. In the case of Vote 33, the Department received sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform to transfer €8.1 million unspent on the arts and culture programme to the broadcasting fund. The Department sought permission for this transfer to meet what it described as emerging pressures in relation to the Sound and Vision fund. In the event, the broadcasting fund did not spend the additional funding in 2021.

The transfer increased the money available to be paid into the broadcasting fund by 48%. Public financial procedures suggest that in such cases, best practice would require that a Supplementary Estimate be taken. A Supplementary Estimate for Vote 33 was approved in December 2021, but the transfer to the broadcasting fund was not included in it, even though it was approved around the same time. Without the approval for the transfer, the €8 million would have been added to the surrender to the Exchequer at the year end.