Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I congratulate the author Kevin Barry on winning the Goldsmiths Prize for literature for his new novel, Beatlebone. This follows his IMPAC award for City of Bohane.Kevin is truly one of our great contemporary writers and I am delighted for him.

At a meeting on 20 June 2014, the Government approved the drafting of a national cultural policy, Culture 2025, which will set out the high-level aims and policies of the Government in this area in the period up to 2025. The broad aim of Culture 2025 will be to reinforce the crucial role of culture in society by supporting the cultural sector and providing conditions that will allow the sector to develop and flourish across all areas of society. Culture 2025 will seek to reflect the modern multicultural Ireland and will be uplifting, accessible, relevant and easy to communicate. To facilitate public consultation on the proposed policy, my Department published a discussion document on 8 August 2015. It followed this up by holding a series of local workshops to enable people across the country to have their views heard. Meetings took place in Cavan, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny and Dublin. The Dublin event followed the participative world café model and was held under the open public debates programme. More than 600 people have attended the consultation events, and more than 200 written submissions have been received. The closing date for receipt of submissions was 31 October 2015. My Department also established both an expert group and a steering group made up of cultural stakeholders who are having an input into the consultation and drafting process. The feedback from the regional meetings and the submissions received will now be examined in detail as part of the process of drafting the cultural policy. I intend that this will be a high-level and living document to set out the framework of cultural policy for the next decade. I will submit the policy document to Government in due course, with the intention of publishing it early in 2016.

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