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

Deputy Smyth is correct that regional arts must to be to the forefront in the national development plan and in our particular sector investment.

11 o’clock

It will be part of the €725 million about which the Deputy asked. That €265 million in effect implements pillar 3 of Creative Ireland in relation to a culture and creativity investment programme. One of the key areas for investment is a programme of investment in regional arts and cultural facilities to enhance opportunities for communities to participate in Irish cultural life. There will also be investment in creative industries with an emphasis on audio-visual and also digitisation of our national collections. For example, the National Archives welcomed about 12,000 visitor during 2015, when there was 1.4 million hits online. It is necessary that we bring services up to the 21st century and we will do that. The list will be added to once we have got past the appraisal, planning and design phase to implementation phase over the next five years. Understandably, what most of the cultural institutions will be doing now is setting out master plans as to how they will use the money in the future. The main ones we will start with are the National Archives of Ireland, the National Museum of Ireland, the National History Museum, the renovation of the National Concert Hall, the Crawford Gallery, the National Gallery of Ireland, the National Theatre and projects with the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Chester Beattie Library.

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