Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 124: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism his views on expanding the culture night in 2009 to allow greater participation over, for example, a weekend; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33786/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Dublin hosted the first culture night in 2006. On culture night key artistic and cultural venues extend their opening hours until late in the evening, providing the public with increased access. Since then the Department's focus has been to develop the event, in conjunction with the Temple Bar cultural trust, which co-ordinates the event by encouraging more venues to participate and to remain open later in the evening. The trust met representatives from the cultural community in Belfast with a view to launching a North-South culture night project for 2009. In addition, following a request from the Department, the trust investigated the possible extension of the culture night concept to areas outside Dublin.

An important element for the success of the culture night concept is the concentration of cultural organisations in an area able to offer a range of cultural activities. Taking into account the findings received from the Temple Bar cultural trust, the Department offered assistance to the city managers of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford in the promotion of culture night in these cities. I am pleased to say that all four cities participated in culture night on Friday, 19 September 2008. The Department also wrote to the County and City Managers Association highlighting the high level of participation in Dublin's culture night and how successful the event is in building and sustaining a strategy for cultural tourism.

Over 80 arts and cultural organisations participated in the Dublin event in 2008, including the national cultural institutions. It is estimated that 100,000 people took part, many of whom would have been visiting Dublin's cultural organisations for the first time. The cities of Limerick, Galway, Cork and Waterford also programmed approximately 50 events on the night.

Culture night promotes access to and participation in the cultural life of each city. A key factor in its success to date is the partnering of the cultural community with the business community, and the active participation of the tourism and transportation bodies. It is modelled on similar successful events in other European cities, which concentrate on providing cultural and artistic events on one evening, in some cases round the clock, rather than over a weekend.

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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It is nice for the Opposition spokesperson to be able to say congratulations and well done to everybody involved in culture night. I attended, but the problem I had was there was too much to do. There were too many options, but that is not really a criticism. The event was excellent and should be flagged. Many people I know had nothing to do with cultural events prior to that, but they were very happy to participate on the night and take part. They enjoyed being able to see the various museums and galleries open to them, including Leinster House.

If I have a criticism it is that because there was so much to do and so many places to go, it was not extended to two nights so that people could have returned another evening or the following day to see some of the other venues. I appreciate the value of having everything on one night because there is a great buzz around that, but it is worth exploring the idea of extending culture night. I should say that culture night catered for all age groups and people were happy about that.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thought the Deputy was going to mention the Brazilians.

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her comments. We all agree culture night was an outstanding success. It got great public coverage, which helped bring the message of what was happening to people. One can never win — the Deputy suggested there was too much to do, whereas, usually, the criticism is there is not enough to do. Culture night is a work in progress in terms of learning how to manage a programme of this scale. It is heartening that the public responds in such significant numbers and from all age groups to these types of events. We will consider how we can maximise the interest.

One of the major benefits of how culture night is structured is that it is cost effective. We do not have to invest significant funds in it, which is what makes it such a huge success. We do not want to turn the event into something that costs millions to organise. It has good success and balance and we must consider how we can retain its ethos and flavour if we need to expand it, not just in Dublin, but in the other four cities. It could expand to other cities also, such as Wexford, Kilkenny and others. Perhaps it would be more important and beneficial to consider expanding it throughout the country rather than just increasing participation in Dublin. That is what I would like to do in the future.