Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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I want to raise the issue of a small amount of money that has a huge impact on Waterford every year. The Imagine arts festival is a special festival which is relatively small in scale but by no means lacking in programme events or community participation. The festival runs every October for ten days. It was founded in 2003 and has grown in scale and content since then. It is very much a community-based festival and represents everything that the arts should be about. It is focused on access to the arts and getting young people, in particular, involved. It has an interesting and varied programme of events including live music, dance, theatre, visual art and plenty of spoken word such as comedy, literature and story telling . There is a very strong children and youth programme and lots of the local schools are involved.

My party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, and I visited the Waterford youth arts building last October and we were delighted to meet young people who were working hard on their pieces for the Waterford Imagine arts festival. A big feature of the festival last year was the parade of light, which was very symbolic. Lots of schools from across Waterford city were involved in making lanterns and taking part in the parade. Local school children making things and taking part in a parade is the essence of a community arts festival. Imagine involves people of all ages and brings the community together in celebration. The festival promotes established and emerging artists on the local, national and international scene. Ticket prices are kept low so that as many people as possible can take part.

Two weeks ago the future of the festival was thrown into doubt when it was revealed that the Imagine arts festival would not receive any money from the Arts Council in 2015, representing a cut of 100%. Imagine was in the small festivals category and received just €11,000 last year but was very glad to receive that money. This is not just about the €11,000, although that is very important; it is also about the fact that Arts Council funding lends legitimacy to the work of the festival and its 42 volunteers.

These include the festival board, the music committee, the John Dwyer trad weekend committee, the Imagine visual arts committee, the parade of light committee the film committee, the dance committee. There are many committees and considerable time is given up for free for the love of arts and for the love of including young people in the arts scene in Waterford. All of these people give of their time and work hard throughout the year to make the festival a great success. It defies belief that last year this was one of the few festivals to get a small increase in funding from €10,000 to €11,000 and this year it has gone to zero. It makes no sense. It has been funded for the past 13 years. Last year AOIFE, the Association of Irish Festival Events, recognised this festival as the overall winner in best-marketed festival of the year. It must have been the best marketed around the country, but not to the Arts Council which could not recognise what a great offering it represented for Waterford. It received an estimated €700,000 in value of PR from local and national media in 2014 and was very positive for the image of Waterford. The festival brochure was launched by Waterford man and editor of The Irish Times, Mr. Kevin O'Sullivan. The decision to the cut the funding means there is now no arts festival in Waterford. To put it in context, the Clonmel Junction Festival receives €90,000 in funding; the Kilkenny Arts Festival receives €400,000 in funding; while the Wexford International Opera Festival receives a whopping €1.5 million. What does Waterford receive? We did receive €11,000 but now it is gone, which is not good enough.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am pleased to respond on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys.

The Arts Council is set up and operates under the Arts Act 2003. Section 24 of that Act states that:

the Council may, for the purposes of—

(a) stimulating public interest in the arts,

(b) promoting knowledge, appreciation or practice of the arts, or

(c) improving standards in the arts, or

(d) otherwise assisting in the development or advancement of the arts,

advance such amount of moneys as it determines to such persons or in respect of such activities as it considers appropriate out of moneys at its disposal upon such terms and conditions as it determines.

Section 24(2) of the Act states, "The Council shall be independent in the performance of its functions under this section". Although the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht funds the Arts Council providing a total of €58.7 million in 2015, the provisions of section 24(2) of the Arts Act mean that the Minister is precluded by law from having any input in the decisions on how that funding is distributed. The law also precludes her from reviewing or overturning any funding decision made by the Arts Council.

Every year, the Arts Council allocates funding to hundreds of arts organisations in an open and transparent way. The council's website gives details of each of its schemes and lists the allocations made in each scheme. The festivals and events scheme 2015 was open to organisations that promote festivals or events with a clear artistic purpose that will take place in the second half of the calendar year 2015. In making the awards the council recognises the distinctive role arts festivals play in sustaining a vibrant arts profile at a local level. Festivals provide opportunities for audiences and artists to experience new work and ways of making work. The council acknowledges the valuable contribution made by voluntary committees in developing these festivals. The council's website also gives the information that a peer panel made the decision on which events to fund and also publishes the names of the members of the panel on the website. This is done for all festival and event scheme awards.

The Arts Council operates an appeals and complaints procedure, and, like other agencies under the aegis of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, is subject to the Ombudsman (Amendment) Act 2012.

Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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As it stands, no Arts Council funding is going into Waterford for festivals. I accept the Minister cannot interfere in the process. However, as the Department sets the policy in terms of inclusion of young people and of community arts in particular, can the Department find the €11,000 elsewhere? Otherwise we will have no festival in Waterford. The contracts have been signed and the acts have been booked. There was no contact or consultation with the committee, which has received funding for the past 13 years and actually received an increase in funding last year. To go from €11,000 to zero is unacceptable.

I accept that the Arts Council has a job to do and its role is separate from that of the Minister. This festival is about the 40 volunteers who come together on an annual basis to make the festival happen. It is about schools, musicians and dancers. It is about encouraging creativity and fostering a positive atmosphere, and vision of and for Waterford. Let us not lose that goodwill that is so important to Waterford. Let us support this festival and keep the arts alive. The local authority and businesses are very supportive of the festival. As it stands there will be no arts festival in Waterford this year because of this decision.

I plead with the Minister of State to go back to the Department and ensure the funding is found elsewhere because no reason has been given and there has been no consultation. The committee has been working away voluntarily and diligently for the past 12 months. Having got €11,000 last year, to be told now that the festival is getting no funding is not good enough. The Government sets the policy on community arts. I ask the Minister of State to bring that message back to the Minister. It is not good enough for Waterford to be left out in the cold when we see that our neighbours receive anything from €90,000 to €1.5 million every year.

Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I reiterate that the Minister is precluded from becoming involved even in terms of a review or reallocation. However, the Deputy has highlighted the issue and the Arts Council will be listening to this. As an independent entity, there is an opportunity for the Deputy to meet representatives of the Arts Council. I am sure that is something the Deputy has considered.

I appreciate the importance of festivals. In my backyard the Earagail Arts Festival operates under a similar structure. It provides not alone entertainment and a tourism focus, but it is also an opportunity to delve into our heritage and history, and allows cultural expression to be at the fore during the height of the summer.

I appreciate where the Deputy is coming from in raising the festival in Waterford, although I am not familiar with it. It is important, especially for the year ahead in 2016 that the momentum the festival has built up during the years is not lost this year. Based on the title, the Imagine Arts Festival, that festival will have a key role in the 1916 commemorations next year.

The Minister is precluded from becoming involved, but the Deputy's contribution has certainly highlighted the issue very strongly.