Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The most important thing is that all involved in the arts sector work together to promote and encourage more people to get involved and participate in the arts. The Taoiseach has said he will double the overall budget for arts, culture and sport over the next seven years. We can meet that target by implementing sustainable increases on an incremental basis between now and 2025, which is a process initiated in budget 2018 in spite of it being a tight year across the board.

In the context of the budget, I announced a funding package of over €300 million in 2018 towards the development of our cultural and creative heritage, which is an increase in funding to my Department of €13 million, comprising €9 million in current expenditure and €4 million in capital expenditure. That includes a boost of €8.5 million in funding for arts and culture. I also secured an additional €90 million in capital funding for my Department between 2018 and 2021, which will accelerate investment across the culture, heritage and Gaeltacht sectors.

As part of the €8.5 million in additional funding, the Arts Council will receive an extra €3 million to enhance its support to artists and arts organisations of all sizes throughout the country.  The total Arts Council allocation of €68.2 million for 2018 represents 23% of the total allocation to all areas of my Department or over 49% of all current expenditure by the culture division of my Department. I also allocated an additional €1.55 million to the Irish Film Board, which is an increase of 9.3%.

As the economy continues to improve in the coming years, the Government's ambition is to allocate more resources to arts and culture and to continue to build on the foundations I have put in place in budget 2018.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Pillar 5 of the Creative Ireland programme aims to unify our global message to the world. The Deputy will appreciate that during the 1916 commemorations in 2016 there was huge engagement in our culture right across our embassies - right across the world, actually. Many different events were held in our embassies and attended by many among our diaspora and indeed others who wanted to engage in Irish culture. Culture Ireland will receive an extra €500,000 next year, which will enable an enhanced culture programme to be presented across Great Britain in 2018. This will build on the unique cultural relationship between the two countries and expand the reach of Irish culture to new audiences. It will also build on Pillar 5 of the Creative Ireland programme, which hinges on extending our cultural footprint globally and highlighting our culture as a unique national strength. This is very important because the IDA says culture is the best calling card it has and that it opens doors for the IDA. It is therefore very important we send out a good message internationally about how rich is our culture. It is a good news story.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to explain something to Members trying to contribute on other Members' questions. There are Members who have tabled questions and are waiting to ask them, so I ask Members wishing to contribute on other Members' questions to ask short, snappy questions if they are called on. I call Deputy Wallace.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has his own question. I was not referring to him.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I call on Deputy Burton but ask her to be brief.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Minister expressed a very philistine and utilitarian view of the arts. The arts does help to project Ireland, but that is not the purpose of the arts; it is one of the bonuses of the arts. It is very philistine of her to say that the IDA says the arts are its best calling card. They may be, but that is not the purpose of the arts. The purpose of the arts is for artists in Ireland to be able to express their creativity and tell us about ourselves.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I will clarify my comments. There are five pillars in the Creative Ireland programme. Pillar 1 concerns children, Pillar 2 concerns community, Pillar 3 concerns cultural institutions, Pillar 4 concerns media production and Pillar 5 aims to unify our global message to the world. What I am saying is very clear. We want to let people know the rich and varied cultural offering we have in this country and let them know that Ireland is a good place to come to live, invest, work or study. That is the purpose of Pillar 5.

There seems to be a confusion in Deputy Wallace's comments. Creative Ireland is a legacy programme for 2016. Culture 2025 is my Department's cultural policy and will soon be finished. It went through the Oireachtas committee and has come back and we are finalising it. I see Creative Ireland as the implementing body capable of implementing the actions and policies in Culture 2025. We want to spread culture and creativity right across Irish society, starting with children, communities, cultural institutions, media and our global message to the world.