Dáil debates
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Other Questions
Arts and Cultural Facilities Audit
4:00 pm
Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 9: To ask the Minister for Tourism; Culture and Sport her plans to conduct a national audit of arts and cultural facilities to guide future capital investment in the sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36691/10]
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In 2008, my Department commenced an audit of sports facilities at local level in line with a commitment in the programme for Government. The audit was carried out with the assistance of local authorities and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. At the time it was decided to take the opportunity to gather information on publicly funded arts and community facilities in local authority areas. Guidelines were issued to the local authorities to assist them in carrying out the audit. The local authorities have since submitted their returns which contain records of arts facilities in each area. The returns received from local authorities are being collated into a database and are being cross-checked against the Department's arts and culture capital programme records.
When this work is completed, the Department will assess what additional necessary actions would be required to complete a full national audit of arts and cultural facilities. In the meantime, many local authorities are publishing the information they received during the course of the audits. Access to this information is available on some local authority websites.
Since 2004, the Department has spent â¬132 million in capital support for 120 arts centres, galleries, museums and theatres. It is fair to say that this six-year period has see the single largest period of sustained investment in arts infrastructure in the history of the State. In that time venues from the award winning Wexford Festival Opera to the Model Niland in Sligo, and from the Gate and the Abbey in Dublin to the Druid in Galway have received investment. Truly, as we face into the second decade of the 21st century, we have a world class arts infrastructure, and it is not all Dublin based. There is much more to achieve and the primary challenge I face now is ensuring an adequacy of public resources to maintain activity levels at these wonderful venues. In 2009 alone, capital support was provided to 48 venues.
Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Again, I am not proposing there should be any more major capital investment at this time. The main issue is, the need to ensure the proper services and activities are provided. It has been pointed out to me that many art centres and festivals do not have computerised box offices or marketing systems. This is an area in which there could be investment. I do believe we need any more buildings as we have more than enough of them. Many of the buildings we have are excellent and are a great credit to us as a country. The question that arises and which arose in previous discussions is how the people in the arts and culture are to be supported and sustained in their jobs.
I do not understand the reason it takes so long to collate information to provide an audit of facilities. The Minister might recall the same problem arose with portakabins in schools. Why does it take so long to put this information together?
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I can understand why it would take so long to collate information in regard to schools because there are 4,000 of them. I do not understand, however, why it took the council so long to collate information on art and culture facilities of which there are only 33. From an arts point of view, we will not have a complete picture because the council will deal only with local authority funded facilities. There are a large number of private ventures. We have information on the national cultural institutions. The audit will not include facilities such as private galleries which contribute to the arts. I accept the argument that the key issue now is to ensure these facilities can function and can be used to put on shows, attract audiences and improve participation. This is my major consideration leading into the budget discussions.