Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Galway 2020, like so many cultural and artistic organisations around Ireland and, indeed, the world, has been deeply impacted, with a significant number of events cancelled or postponed. On 29 April last, Galway 2020 received approval from my predecessor to re-engage with the cultural partners from the original winning bid for the European Capital of Culture to explore the options for project delivery in the context of the evolving public health situation.

On 10 July, following consideration and review, I approved a reimagined cultural programme for Galway 2020. While the reimagined programme is scaled down compared with that originally planned, it will still see more than 350 Irish artists work on the delivery of a range of projects covering the broad spectrum of art forms and addressing the varied sectors of society, including children, youth and older people, the Traveller community, people with intellectual and sensory disabilities and hospital patients.

As part of the approval I have made it a requirement that all projects comply fully with public health advice and that all stakeholders remain informed on the evolving public health situation and employ appropriate contingency measures with regard to project delivery. There will also be close monitoring by both Galway 2020 and my Department of the progress on all projects.

As the Deputy can appreciate, Galway 2020 has incurred significant reductions in its staffing levels over recent months due to the pandemic, with only seven full-time equivalent staff members remaining. Notwithstanding this, the Irish language remains one of the three central themes of Galway 2020, and seven of the 28 approved projects are either solely in the Irish language or fully bilingual. While I understand it was not possible to retain an Irish language officer, Galway 2020 will be engaging with Irish language organisations on a plan it will devise for the community as part of its delivery of the programme.

The Government commitment of €15 million to Galway 2020 remains in place with an allocation of €7.1 million in 2020, of which €2.819 million has been paid to date. As per the terms of the performance delivery agreement between the Department and Galway 2020, funding has been spent on cultural programming, programme production staffing costs and costs associated with the operation of the Galway 2020 volunteer programme.

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