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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The most important thing is that all involved in the arts sector work together to promote and encourage more people to get involved and participate in the arts. The Taoiseach has said he will double the overall budget for arts, culture and sport over the next seven years. We can meet that target by implementing sustainable increases on an incremental basis between now and 2025, which is a process initiated in budget 2018 in spite of it being a tight year across the board.

In the context of the budget, I announced a funding package of over €300 million in 2018 towards the development of our cultural and creative heritage, which is an increase in funding to my Department of €13 million, comprising €9 million in current expenditure and €4 million in capital expenditure. That includes a boost of €8.5 million in funding for arts and culture. I also secured an additional €90 million in capital funding for my Department between 2018 and 2021, which will accelerate investment across the culture, heritage and Gaeltacht sectors.

As part of the €8.5 million in additional funding, the Arts Council will receive an extra €3 million to enhance its support to artists and arts organisations of all sizes throughout the country.  The total Arts Council allocation of €68.2 million for 2018 represents 23% of the total allocation to all areas of my Department or over 49% of all current expenditure by the culture division of my Department. I also allocated an additional €1.55 million to the Irish Film Board, which is an increase of 9.3%.

As the economy continues to improve in the coming years, the Government's ambition is to allocate more resources to arts and culture and to continue to build on the foundations I have put in place in budget 2018.

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