Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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31. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when she expects to launch stream 3 of the arts and culture capital scheme for smaller-scale projects following the recent announcement of the successful applications under stream 1 and 2 of the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11357/17]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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After the success of streams 1 and 2 of the arts and culture capital scheme, I would be grateful if the Minister would outline when she intends to open stream 3 of this funding. It is very important to look at the smaller areas that we can fund under arts and culture, especially in rural areas.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. I recently announced details of grants of more than €9 million in capital funding for arts and culture centres throughout the country. This capital scheme is the most significant investment in arts and cultural centres in a decade and will target investment at a range of different facilities, including arts centres, theatres, galleries and museums, as well as artists’ studios and creative spaces. I will be opening a further stream of funding under this scheme in the coming weeks and this will provide smaller capital grants of up to €20,000 to not-for-profit organisations with a defined arts and cultural remit. While the amounts involved are relatively modest, the grants will in themselves make a huge difference to individual organisations and will be of particular benefit to local cultural centres throughout rural Ireland. I will make an announcement once the scheme is open to applications.

This kind of investment is at the centre of what I am trying to achieve through Creative Ireland and the Action Plan for Rural Development. The fourth pillar of the action plan is Fostering Culture and Creativity in Rural Communities. The key objectives of this pillar are: to increase access to the arts and enhance cultural facilities in rural communities; to develop and enhance further culture and creativity in rural Ireland through the establishment of culture teams and creativity hubs as part of the Creative Ireland programme; and to promote the Irish language as a key resource in Gaeltacht and other rural communities. In addition, a dedicated budget of €1 million has been allocated to the local authorities towards the implementation of initiatives under pillar 2 of the Creative Ireland programme, Enabling Creativity in Every Community.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Minister may remember when, on her visit to Moate with Councillor John Dolan last year, she stopped at a number of locations including Dún na Sí, met the Moate performing and visual arts group and Moate Action Group and saw the great work that was done in the town in recent years. The town has been benefiting from funding from this Government. During the Minister's visit to Moate performing and visual arts group, she saw the huge facilities that need to be upgraded at the relevant location. There are a number of students and staff who are doing their very best to bring culture into the lives of younger people and back into the area and put on many performances. The club was established in 1998 and prior to that was an offshoot of another group established in 1981. The Minister will remember the performance the students gave on a very cold afternoon. She could see at first hand the passion they had in giving that performance. We need to bring culture into areas like that. Areas like that will benefit from this measure. It is good to see that schemes like this can benefit and apply under one of these measures.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I was delighted to visit Moate last year. There is an excellent local action group in place down there that is doing powerful work in the town. I have used Moate as an example of how communities can come together within a town because what they are doing in Moate is wonderful. I was delighted to be able to support them with funding under the town and village renewal scheme. As the Deputy said, I met the Moate performing and visual arts club and the local dance troupe - full of young performers. They put on a wonderful show. As the Deputy said, it was a very cold day. It is a great community facility and they take great pride in it. They had all of their pictures and awards displayed from down through the years. There was a vast array of costumes as well.

That is the sort of community-based facility in rural Ireland that I want to see supported as part of the small scale grant scheme that I will be announcing shortly. The third stream applications will be much less onerous than the applications for the first and second streams in order to make it easier for the local community groups to apply. I would certainly encourage them to get the forms filled out and get them in as soon as the scheme opens. Those are the types of facilities that I want to see supported. That type of vibrant community-based facility is at the heart of the community. One sees young children learning how to dance and families coming together and meeting. It is wonderful. We want to support that kind of vibrant community right across the country.