Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 38: To ask the Minister for Tourism; Culture and Sport his plans to extend the culture night event to other cities on the next occasion that it is held; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10622/11]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Question 44: To ask the Minister for Tourism; Culture and Sport his plans to make culture night a twice yearly event as promised in the Programme for Government and if he will consider extending it to other cities outside of Dublin [10708/11]

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Tourism; Culture and Sport his plans to make culture night a twice yearly event. [10618/11]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I propose to answer Questions Nos. 38, 44 and 45, together.

Culture Night 2011 will take place on Friday, 23 September 2011. On culture night, arts and cultural organisations and venues, including the national cultural institutions, extend their opening hours until late in the evening to allow for increased free access to the various collections, workshops and other events. Culture night has grown from a relatively small scale cultural event staged in Dublin in 2006 to the significant national cultural event it now is, with over 500 cultural venues across 20 locations throughout the country participating in Culture Night 2010.

Temple Bar Cultural Trust co-ordinates the Dublin culture night event in association with the Council of National Cultural Institutions, Temple Bar cultural quarter, Dublin City Council, art and cultural institutions and other agencies. My Department has provided funding to the trust for the event since 2006 and in 2008 requested the trust to consider an expansion of the culture night model to cities and towns outside of Dublin. The success of this matched-funding initiative in 2008 led to my Department agreeing to fund further expansions in 2009 and 2010. Last year's event was the most extensive culture night to date, with the participation of locations from Cork to Donegal and Galway to Wexford, including Gaeltacht regions for the first time.

Plans for the 2011 event are well under way and my Department recently invited applications for participation in regional Culture Night 2011. We hope to further develop the 2011 event as a unique offering of memorable experiences involving local arts, culture, heritage and the community which hopefully would stimulate repeat visits to cultural attractions.

Discussions are ongoing as to the most appropriate way to build on the success and popularity of culture night and these discussions include the feasibility of making culture night a twice yearly event as proposed in the programme for Government. The Deputy will appreciate that these discussions must have regard to the resources available to my Department and to the many competing demands on these resources. The St. Patrick's Day festival is currently the primary cultural festival during the spring and there may be scope for the development of an audience-focused cultural initiative as part of these festivities. My Department and its agencies also support a much expanded music day, now held in early April each year. My Department is in ongoing exploratory discussions with Temple Bar Cultural Trust in this regard.

Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Given the current economic climate it is essential to maximise the potential for cultural tourism. The programme for Government has committed to extending culture night to two nights a year. What criteria are used to identify locations for culture night? Would the Minister consider including Youghal on the list of locations for Culture Night 2011?

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I suggest the Deputy should ask the people of Youghal to make a submission to the Department or the trust. It is important that a submission be made. I will give some figures for Culture Night 2010 to demonstrate the spread of funding across the country. A sum of €10,000 was given to the organisers of Culture Night in Carlow, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo, Oughterard, Roscommon, Sligo, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow. There has been a very good spread across the country. It is increasing in popularity. I encourage more communities to get involved and participate in Culture Night, which makes a major impact. It will take place this year on Friday, 23 September. I suggest we should do something here in the Dáil to celebrate and recognise Culture Night. Before last Christmas, I was one of many Deputies from all parties who were involved in the organisation of a successful charity art exhibition that raised a substantial amount of money for Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Crumlin. I suggest we might try to organise an event in the Dáil to mark this year's Culture Night.

I assure Deputy McLellan that the guidelines and criteria are quite flexible. An emphasis has been placed on participation to encourage communities to get involved in Culture Night. Funding is available to those who present good proposals. As the broadest definition of "culture" is used on Culture Night, it can involve Irish traditional music, song and dance, etc. Obviously it has to be culturally driven. If there is a good spread and a good mix of applications, most of them will be successful. I advise the Deputy to ensure an application is made on behalf of Youghal to the Department or Temple Bar Cultural Trust as soon as possible. I can give her the contact details if she wishes.

Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Great.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Perhaps the Minister can forward those details to me as well. I am aware of many groups that are interested in Culture Night. Many of them participated in previous Culture Night events and met their expenses from their own resources. They did not get any funding from the State. What level of funding is available for this year's Culture Night, which will take place on 23 September?

The Minister spoke in his reply about the possibility of "making Culture Night a twice yearly event", as proposed in the programme for Government. It will depend on the availability of funding, as the Minister said. I was a little worried to hear him indicate that St. Patrick's Day could be adopted as a second cultural day, as opposed to an actual Culture Night. I would not see that as the ideal situation. St. Patrick's Day, which is all about being Irish, is our national patron's day and a public holiday and has been for a long time. We do not need to identify it as a cultural day. I would be inclined to say we should have a second specific Culture Night that is designated for promoting cultural awareness and driving economic activity in the culture and arts sector.

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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The total regional funding for this year's Culture Night, which was allocated before I took office, is €150,000. It is quite small. The idea is to make small sums of money available to many communities. One can do a great deal with a small amount of money. An allocation of €1,000 could be used to get musicians together in a single location, for example. I find that a small amount of money can leverage an awful lot of value in the arts. People are happy to get a small amount of money to cover their expenses, such as hiring venues and compensating those who have to travel. The moneys that have been provided to date have been well spent and well funded.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a second Culture Night. That is being examined. I think it might be a good idea to link it to St. Patrick's Day. There is major and widespread interest in cultural events throughout the country at that time of the year. The quality and diversity of St. Patrick's Day parades has improved considerably by comparison with previous times. As politicians, we attend parades and view them from platforms. A great effort is made in parts of the country that are keen to represent their own unique culture. This year, I attended parades in Tralee, Listowel, Abbeyfeale and Abbeydorney. To give a local example, the parade in Abbeydorney, which is an agricultural parish, had a focus on the land. There was a great display of vintage tractors, ploughs and everything associated with the land. Such events reveal aspects of Irish culture and heritage that might not be demonstrated during the rest of the year. Therefore, I suggest it might not be a bad idea to connect any second Culture Night event with St. Patrick's Day. I take the point made by Deputy Troy.

Culture Night is well established. It represents good value for money. We leverage a great deal of activity from it. As long as I am in this Ministry, I will promote the notion that there should be more widespread participation in it and that it should be of greater national benefit to all communities. Culture Night should not be confined to those communities that are aware of it and have capitalised on the grants scheme to date. The small fund that is available should be more widely distributed.