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

The Minister has managed to reaffirm my concerns about how the Creative Ireland moneys are spent. As the Minister has outlined, almost €1 million is media driven and centres on the umbrella and slogan of Creative Ireland, instead of actually reaching the artists and the heart of what they do in very restricted conditions in respect of money and working conditions.

My conversation with the previous Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, on her last outing with responsibility for this area in the Dáil Chamber is what set the platform for this discussion today. My concern is that Creative Ireland is becoming an alternative agency for the funding of the arts instead of the funding being directed through the Arts Council, with an arms length approach that is independent of the Government. I am concerned that our Arts Council, which is the fundamental funding agency for artists throughout the country, got a total increase of €3 million, whereas €8 million was set aside for Creative Ireland. As I said, I cannot emphasise enough that, to me, to spend €900,000 on advertising is to have a huge proportion of the overall expenditure for Creative Ireland go to the media.

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