Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)

I propose to answer Questions Nos. 38, 44 and 45, together.

Culture Night 2011 will take place on Friday, 23 September 2011. On culture night, arts and cultural organisations and venues, including the national cultural institutions, extend their opening hours until late in the evening to allow for increased free access to the various collections, workshops and other events. Culture night has grown from a relatively small scale cultural event staged in Dublin in 2006 to the significant national cultural event it now is, with over 500 cultural venues across 20 locations throughout the country participating in Culture Night 2010.

Temple Bar Cultural Trust co-ordinates the Dublin culture night event in association with the Council of National Cultural Institutions, Temple Bar cultural quarter, Dublin City Council, art and cultural institutions and other agencies. My Department has provided funding to the trust for the event since 2006 and in 2008 requested the trust to consider an expansion of the culture night model to cities and towns outside of Dublin. The success of this matched-funding initiative in 2008 led to my Department agreeing to fund further expansions in 2009 and 2010. Last year's event was the most extensive culture night to date, with the participation of locations from Cork to Donegal and Galway to Wexford, including Gaeltacht regions for the first time.

Plans for the 2011 event are well under way and my Department recently invited applications for participation in regional Culture Night 2011. We hope to further develop the 2011 event as a unique offering of memorable experiences involving local arts, culture, heritage and the community which hopefully would stimulate repeat visits to cultural attractions.

Discussions are ongoing as to the most appropriate way to build on the success and popularity of culture night and these discussions include the feasibility of making culture night a twice yearly event as proposed in the programme for Government. The Deputy will appreciate that these discussions must have regard to the resources available to my Department and to the many competing demands on these resources. The St. Patrick's Day festival is currently the primary cultural festival during the spring and there may be scope for the development of an audience-focused cultural initiative as part of these festivities. My Department and its agencies also support a much expanded music day, now held in early April each year. My Department is in ongoing exploratory discussions with Temple Bar Cultural Trust in this regard.

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