Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The plans to celebrate the designation of Dublin as UNESCO City of Literature are anchored by Dublin City Council. My Department is represented on the steering committee, as are a number of the arts, culture and tourism agencies under its aegis. As Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, I was very pleased that Dublin was honoured in this way and that the city council's application to UNESCO for the title of Dublin City of Literature was successful. In that regard, I want to record my appreciation of the work done by the steering and management committee, led by the city council's library services, which prepared the award-winning application. The compilation of the winning bid was truly a collaborative effort, and demonstrates what can be achieved when agencies pull together.

The designation as City of Literature is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities network. Dublin has now joined the select few within the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, namely, Edinburgh, Iowa, and Melbourne. Dublin, as a UNESCO City of Literature, has enormous potential for beneficial cultural, tourism and economic impacts, not only in the capital city itself but also in communities across the country. A significant literary component was added to the recent culture night in Dublin, and funded by my Department to mark this magnificent achievement.

By providing a global platform for a city's local cultural assets, the Creative Cities Network is facilitating access to know-how, information and experiences to all member cities as a means to promote the development of local cultural industries and to foster member cities' worldwide recognition.

Dublin is currently known across the globe for its writers, from Behan to Stoker and from Doyle to Sheridan. It has been home, inspiration and subject to generations of the finest writers the world has known. My Department, and the tourism and cultural agencies under its aegis, will work with Dublin City Council to leverage as much cultural and economic benefit from this designation as we can.

At the announcement of the UNESCO designation at our newest theatre, the Grand Canal Theatre, we were able to present a world-class line-up of our Irish literary talent, including poets Thomas Kinsella and Theo Dorgan, in addition to novelists and award winners Joseph O'Connor, Cathy Kelly and Colm Tóibín, and our children's laureate, Siobhán Parkinson, to mention just a few.

Our literary reputation is not just something imaginary and part of the Dublin mist; it is vibrantly, visibly and abundantly all around us, and the City of Literature designation will allow us to showcase it to the world. With that in mind Culture Ireland is including a very significant literature component in its cultural programme for North America in 2011. I will be launching that programme next month in the United States and I have invited the director of the City of Literature organisation to join the trade mission supporting that launch. In addition, the tourism agencies are heavily promoting the designation. To date, the response internationally has been impressive.

My Department and the Arts Council are working closely with Dublin City Council on its programme to mark the designation in 2011 and a measure of co-funding will be made available by me to ensure we capitalise on this opportunity for our literary, cultural and business communities.

See this speech in context