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

The Creative Ireland programme was launched under much fanfare and we have already had the debate on the amounts spent on advertising in the first year. The Creative Youth plan was launched in December 2017 under the Creative Ireland banner. Its ambition is to provide access to programmes for children and this is a measurable deliverable. Can the Minister give specific detail of the number of children who have access to music, drama, coding and art and what percentage of the child population this represents?

A number of pilot projects have been launched under the Creative Youth plan. The Creative Schools pilot project will serve over 150 schools but there are 4,000 schools around the country. Music Generation is not expected to be provided nationally until 2022 and only 40 secondary schools, out of 700, offer coding at leaving certificate, while the Creative Clusters initiative is only on a pilot basis. It all sounds very impressive in terms of the type of programmes on offer but how is it being measured, monitored and reviewed?

See this speech in context