Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 139 and 149 together.

I launched the grassroots music venue support scheme in March this year to support small, established music venues that promote themselves and are known in the community for programming grassroots music artists, in recognition of the contribution they make to the music industry and the wider night-time economy.

The scheme aims to provide employment opportunities for emerging artists and professionals, including production staff and crew who are dependent on live performances. The scheme operated with a total fund of €500,000 and grants were available of up to €15,000 to host events showcasing the talent of emerging, grassroots artists, performing live music that they have written or created themselves. The scheme was extremely popular and it was closed in early April as it was oversubscribed. A total of 96 applications were received by my Department. Applications were assessed by my officials strictly by order of date and time of receipt and all venues had to meet the eligibility criteria and conditions of funding, in accordance with the guidelines of the scheme. Of the 96 applications received, a total of 45 were eligible for funding. I recently announced the names of 33 venues that were awarded funding under this scheme. Of the 45 venues eligible for funding, there was a broad geographical spread with more than 40% of the venues located outside of the major cities and more than 70% outside Dublin.

The majority of eligible applications were from Munster with a total of 19 venues eligible for funding; 13 applications were eligible for funding in Dublin; ten in Leinster; two in Connacht and one in Ulster. I acknowledge that the number of eligible applications for Ulster is low but we only received four applications for funding from that province and six in total for the north-west region. Unfortunately, we could not allocate funds to the remaining 12 eligible applicants, based on available funding resources. My officials have written to all successful applicants to ask if they will use their full allocation and should any funding become available, they will redistribute the funding to the next eligible applicant on the list. I understand that there may be disappointed applicants but, as I have stated, I recognise the value of this scheme to venues across Ireland and I am committed to considering another phase of this in the not too distant future.

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