Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I should have said I congratulate the Minister on his elevation to the Cabinet.

As the Minister is not here herself to answer questions, in the launch that will be held in the autumn, which is some time away, I request, as I have on a number of occasions, the use of the local arts in education partnership, with which the Minister is completely familiar and which was run as a pilot scheme by Cavan Monaghan Education and Training Board. We have been through all of this. We have identified how ETBs are one of the primary delivery or implementation sources throughout the country. There are only 16 of them and they can work with the local authorities. I ask the Minister to deliver the message loud and clear to the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, that I hope as part of the launch in the autumn she will roll out the local arts in education partnerships. They are part of what was written down in black and white a number of years ago in the arts in education charter. This was the aspiration in 2013. It is now 2017 and we have not seen anything tangible. I was involved in the pilot scheme in Cavan and Monaghan. We know it works. It is a no-brainer. Until responsibility to deliver it has been designated to somebody it will not happen. It is all meaningless talk and huff and bluster. I want to see this as part of what the Minister rolls out in the autumn and I ask the Minister to carry the message back to her loud and clear that the local arts in education partnerships are to be delivered. Until the Minister tells me otherwise, I suggest and recommend the ETBs, with the local authorities and local arts in education officers, are best placed to deliver it.

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