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

I appreciate the reply. I have the 2017 end of year report in front of me. At a very quick glance, one can see a huge proportion of the funds in total have been spent on media and the promotion of the Creative Ireland programme, especially under the heading of citizen engagement. In 2017 the budget for creative Ireland was €5 million. Of this €0.9 million was spent on citizen engagement. Almost €400,000 was spent on supplements and articles in national newspapers, €245,000 was spent on advertisements in regional newspapers and radio stations, €165,000 was spent on what is described as optimising the Creative Ireland programme's online presence and €86,000 was spent on media management fees. A further €0.6 million was spent on web and digital media content. Each cent of public money that is spent on slogans, images and social media advertising budgets is money that is directed away from the artists. My main concern is that the money for Creative Ireland is not actually reaching the artists themselves. Perhaps the Minister will respond to this.

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