Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 46: To ask the Minister for Tourism; Culture and Sport the major capital programmes that are expected to progress in 2010 in the area of the arts and culture; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20696/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Departmental funding for major capital cultural projects is primarily from the cultural development subhead that has an allocation of €16 million in 2010.

This level of funding will allow for continued progress for the arts and culture capital enhancement support scheme, ACCESS, that commenced in 2001. Under the ACCESS scheme, grants totalling more than €85 million have been awarded for the development of 120 arts and cultural projects throughout the country to develop the arts and culture infrastructure. Integrated arts centres, theatres, museums and galleries as well as arts studios and other creative and performance spaces have been provided with funding. The ACCESS programme has been widely acknowledged as a significant intervention in the provision of quality cultural spaces throughout the regions. In 2010, ACCESS projects nearing completion include the Niland Model Arts Centre in Sligo, the Belltable in Limerick, Solas cinema in Galway and the Wexford Arts Centre.

In addition to the ACCESS scheme funding is occasionally provided for other capital projects. These allocations generally arise outside of the timeframe for which applications could be accepted under the ACCESS scheme, and are assessed on an individual case-by-case basis. Among the projects that have received funding are the Gate Theatre, the Abbey Theatre and the Wexford Theatre Royal, which is the Opera House. The Comhaltas Ceoltóiri Éireann capital development programme is also among the significant projects that were funded by the Department.

In addition, the Department, together with the Office of Public Works, is working on dealing with major structural issues at the historic wings of the National Gallery and I am hopeful that work can commence in 2010. Furthermore, an offsite storage facility for the National Museum of Ireland in Swords, County Dublin, is undergoing fit-out works with an estimated completion date of June 2010. The works are required to meet the needs of the museum to operate the facility as a collection resource centre and the Department is contributing €1 million towards the costs of the works. Furthermore, work has now been completed on the refurbishment of the Natural History Museum and it reopened late last month to record visitor numbers.

The procurement stage of the redevelopment of the National Concert Hall is also progressing. In accordance with the Government decision, the project was tendered on a design, build, finance and maintain PPP project basis. Two participating consortia submitted tenders on 25 September 2009 and these tenders are being assessed by the National Development Finance Agency under the PPP guidelines set out by the Department of Finance. Once these evaluations have been finalised, a more definite timeline for the project can be established.

Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I welcome that a number of capital projects are going ahead. I understand some of the projects are new, as opposed to refurbishments and commitments already in place. Are new staffing requirements implied in any of the projects?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Earlier, I indicated that another 22 projects were due to draw down grant aid, so they are ongoing all the time. Quite a number of new projects are also included in what I indicated. This concerns funding under the capital programme so any staffing would have to be paid for under grants through the Arts Council and that would come up for consideration as part of its Estimate every year.