Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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42. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the processes with regard to, and if an audit is in place for, the awarding of funding by Creative Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48143/17]

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister outline the processes for the awarding of funding by Creative Ireland and state whether an audit has taken place?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. The Creative Ireland programme is not a funding body and does not administer any specific grant or funding schemes. Neither is it my intention that it will become such a funding body in the future. An enabling budget of €5 million was allocated to implement and promote the Creative Ireland programme from within my Department in 2017. To date, €4 million has been expended in this regard. This includes €1 million which I allocated to the local authorities to support their culture and creativity plans for 2017 and €1.1 million towards planning and rolling out Cruinniú na Cásca on Easter Monday. I allocated an additional €0.5 million to developing two websites to inform the public at home and abroad - creativeireland.ieand ireland.ie- and associated digital content and social media platforms to support these websites. This has been supported by extensive citizen engagement in the programme which to date has cost €600,000.

In addition, the opportunity was taken in 2017 which is its initial year to engage and collaborate with several key cultural partners at various important national events and festivals in order to promote the objectives and underlying values of this major new programme and to encourage deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of creativity. Among the considerations used to identity key cultural partners was a definitive creative element to their programme, their track record in delivering a programme and their capacity to attract and engage a significant audience. To date €250,000 has been spent on this element of the programme. The remaining €550,000 has been expended on administrative and everyday operational costs associated with the Creative Ireland programme office in my Department. All programmes administered by my Department are subject to public financial procedures and are monitored and reviewed on an ongoing basis to ensure value for money. Programmes can also be subject to periodic monitoring through the Department's internal and external audit facilities.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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In her reply, the Minister said she does not fund projects and does not intend to fund specific projects through Creative Ireland. Creative Ireland emerged from the Government's broad cultural 2025 strategy document. All of the Government initiative was welcomed at its launch in December 2016. The arts world welcomes the enhanced level of co-ordination that promised to put culture and creativity at the centre of public policy. Almost one year has passed since the launch and there is an air of ambiguity around the role of Creative Ireland, particularly when it comes to the distribution of its budget. Budget 2018 saw the allocation of €8.5 million to Creative Ireland. How will this money be spent? Has Creative Ireland become an alternative funding agency to the Arts Council? Is the allocation of €8.5 million the beginning of an attempt to usurp the role of the legislatively independent Arts Council?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Creative Ireland programme did not get an additional €8.5 million in the budget. The €8.5 million in current funding across the cultural sector will assist in delivering the objectives of the Creative Ireland programme, including the €3 million of that allocation which is being provided to the Arts Council. I was delighted to increase the funding to the arts sector in budget 2018. I was able to increase the funding to the arts sector and to the cultural institutions right across the board. I increased funding to the Arts Council by a further €3 million. I increased funding to the Irish Film Board and all the different agencies that fall within my remit. I am glad to say that since 2014, I have been in a position to do that. I want to be clear not to conflate the Arts Council and the Creative Ireland programme because they are separate in terms of their funding. Creative Ireland is an enabling programme. At its heart is the creative children and creative communities programmes and building and working more collaboratively with all the stakeholders.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am well aware of the fact that Creative Ireland is completely separate from the Arts Council. My concern is what Creative Ireland's role is in terms of funding. I do not think it is very honest to say that Creative Ireland is not funding certain projects. Creative Ireland has had its logo on many very reputable and distinguished arts festivals around the country, such as the Kilkenny Arts Festival and Galway Arts Festival. Will the Minister be clear with us because there is ambiguity and concern in the arts world? Which is the leading agency for artists and artist supports? Is it Creative Ireland or is it the Arts Council? The Arts Council got a mere €3 million increase in the budget. It is a far cry from what was promised by the Taoiseach, who promised to double the arts budget. The Minister took me up wrong. I did not say the Minister got an additional €8.5 million. Creative Ireland got €8.5 million from the Arts Council. On this issue, John McAuliffe, who is deputy director of the Arts Council, asked what kind of application processes, peer reviews and long-term planning will influence how taxpayers' money is spent. We do not know the answer to that. I am hoping the Minister can clarify that very important question for me.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Creative Ireland is not a funding body. It was set up to collaborate and work with all the different agencies. The Deputy mentioned a number of them. The creative children programme, which followed on from the arts in education programme, will get €1 million in 2017. The local authorities got €1 million in funding last year. I did not have an input in deciding how it was spent. The local authorities supported a number of different initiatives in their own counties. It has been very successful. Culture teams have been set up in every local authority. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government gave them a further €1 million so they had €2 million in total to support different initiatives within their own local authority. I had absolutely no input into that funding. The purpose of Creative Ireland is to work collaboratively across the different agencies to put culture and creativity at the heart of society. It is working very well. Creative Ireland had a presence at a number of festivals around the country. We engage with several key cultural partners at various important national events and festivals. The Deputy mentioned one that was in that group. Its purpose was to get the message out about Creative Ireland.