Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I thank Deputy Smyth for bringing this question to the House. As part of the 2017 Creative Ireland programme, my Department undertook a comprehensive citizen engagement programme, to which the Deputy alluded, to showcase the range and depth of Ireland's cultural and creative offering. This is to encourage participation in arts and creative activities as a means of individual, collective and societal well-being and to build awareness of the Creative Ireland programme, particularly in its first year.

The vision of the Creative Ireland programme is that every person in Ireland should have the opportunity to realise his or her full creative potential. This represents a new approach to creativity and cultural policy and therefore required a substantial and sustained communications programme in 2017. A combination of approaches and platforms were used to maximise impact taking account of the diversity of the target audiences.

The development of the citizen engagement programme was very much informed by the positive experience of previous programmes, particularly the approach taken in the Ireland 2016 centenary programme. In addition, statistics relating to readership of national and regional newspapers, listenership to local radio and increased use of social media, especially by younger people, all informed the choices made. The programme was also designed to have as wide a reach as possible, including in rural areas.

Expenditure included supplements and resource material published in national newspapers, features in the regional press and regional broadcast media, which optimised the Creative Ireland programme online presence via two bespoke websites and associated social media content. It also was about building awareness of the programme among the Irish diaspora in the United States.

In addition, the opportunity was taken in the initial year of the programme to engage and collaborate with several key cultural partners at various significant national events and festivals to promote the objectives of the programme and encourage deeper appreciation of the role of creativity in Irish life. It was also envisaged that where opportunities arose, the Creative Ireland programme would engage with specific initiatives throughout 2017 to communicate the objectives of the programme.

A full breakdown of how the Creative Ireland programme budget was spent in 2017 including all the elements referred to above is provided on my Department's Creative Ireland programme website. That breakdown of costs is available if Deputy Smyth is looking for it.

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