Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Having been involved in the arts in a voluntary capacity for many years, I can see at first hand their value to society, especially at local and community level. Given the enjoyment that people of all ages and abilities can derive from the arts, funding must continue.

Given our current constraints, the Minister's proposal is exciting and interesting, and it is being welcomed by the arts community.

In this country we are good at many things and excellent at others, the area of artistic endeavour being one of them. We even take for granted how good we are at it. We also have an excellent capacity for giving and scope in generosity. At a time when we are at a funding crossroads, these two must meet, and the arts sector must look to develop its own place in philanthropic giving.

I looked at some figures today and it is staggering, considering the size of our country, that €500 million is generated annually in philanthropic income, which is a significant figure. However, just 0.6% goes to the arts. With pressure on budgets for the arts, I see this as a great opportunity for big and small organisations to add fund-raising to their business model and put strategies in place to deliver on those efforts successfully. There is no denying that it will be a challenge to encourage philanthropy, and many groups will have to skill up and think outside the box. The great thing about the arts community is that it is great at that. These bodies will be well able to put themselves in a position to solicit effectively levels of funding both from individual and corporate philanthropists.

These arts bodies will also need to be in a position to articulate a very strong case for support and continue to build a relationship with funders. I am confident they will rise to the challenge and they will not be on their own in doing so. The programme for Government provides for building private support for the arts, and so I welcome the programmes being progressed by the Minister and his Department, the philanthropy leverage initiative and the Arts Council initiative entitled RAISE: Building Fund-raising Capacity. The philanthropy initiative will be terrific for those organisations which successfully obtain private funding as they will be able to obtain matching funding up to €20,000. The advantage in obtaining private funding and being topped up by the Government is marvellous.

I wish the participants of RAISE every success as it has the amazing ambition of raising €10 million in private funding over the next five years. I know much expertise exists to help them, including existing organisations such as Business to Arts, Philanthropy Ireland and the Community Foundation for Ireland, which will no doubt be a help, in addition to the private fund-raisers to be installed as mentors to organisations.

As I noted, the artistic sector is very creative and innovative. Fund It is another marvellous initiative, an online platform where philanthropic support is crowd sourced, meaning people can give as little or as much as they want to fund specific artistic activities. I look forward to attending the seminar organised by the Minister in Smock Alley, and I know many people will come from various parts of the country to it. I will encourage people to come from Birr and Tullamore. Tullamore is developing a new arts centre with the support of the local county and town council, and a significant amount of money has been raised. The Minister has given a commitment on that funding, and I look forward to supporting him in his endeavours to ensure that, contrary to previous comments, this Government is fully supporting the arts community and its work to the benefit of society.

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