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

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I recently announced details of grants of more than €9 million in capital funding for arts and culture centres throughout the country. This capital scheme is the most significant investment in arts and cultural centres in a decade and will target investment at a range of different facilities, including arts centres, theatres, galleries and museums, as well as artists’ studios and creative spaces. I will be opening a further stream of funding under this scheme in the coming weeks and this will provide smaller capital grants of up to €20,000 to not-for-profit organisations with a defined arts and cultural remit. While the amounts involved are relatively modest, the grants will in themselves make a huge difference to individual organisations and will be of particular benefit to local cultural centres throughout rural Ireland. I will make an announcement once the scheme is open to applications.

This kind of investment is at the centre of what I am trying to achieve through Creative Ireland and the Action Plan for Rural Development. The fourth pillar of the action plan is Fostering Culture and Creativity in Rural Communities. The key objectives of this pillar are: to increase access to the arts and enhance cultural facilities in rural communities; to develop and enhance further culture and creativity in rural Ireland through the establishment of culture teams and creativity hubs as part of the Creative Ireland programme; and to promote the Irish language as a key resource in Gaeltacht and other rural communities. In addition, a dedicated budget of €1 million has been allocated to the local authorities towards the implementation of initiatives under pillar 2 of the Creative Ireland programme, Enabling Creativity in Every Community.

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