Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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In Carlow town, we are so very fortunate to have the VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, one of Ireland's leading contemporary arts spaces. It opened in 2009. With its beautiful gallery space and performance area, it is an incredible amenity to have. VISUAL houses a 335-seat theatre and the largest white-cube gallery space in the country. It produces a programme of both commissioned and existing high-quality national and international contemporary art, plus a host of performances, including dance, film, comedy literature and music. Its values have inclusion and collaboration at their core. The communities of Carlow and Ireland as a whole have been gifted so much by the centre. In its mission statement, VISUAL states it is committed to identifying and removing physical, social and economic barriers to support, foster and provide opportunities for arts participation in our communities. However, funding is a large barrier to completing this work.

Just recently, the company operating the centre had to seek a subvention from Carlow County Council of nearly €90,000 because it needed to make up a shortfall in funding and meet operational costs for the year. Carlow arts centre, which is owned by the council, wrote to the council asking it for funding due to the increased energy and utility costs, a lack of audiences due to Covid and reductions in VAT recoupment. It is not the first time that the centre has gone to council looking for extra money. I am genuinely worried about the future of VISUAL. Giving money from local authority funds means something else gets cut. I have raised the issue of the theatre not being sufficiently accessible to community groups because of the cost of hiring the venue. This is not acceptable. The arts should be for all to enjoy. That is a huge issue for me when working with community groups that want to hire VISUAL. Owing to the cost, they cannot afford to do so. That is not right.

Currently, all funding from the Arts Council goes to the gallery at the centre but the theatre does not receive Government funding. VISUAL was set up initially as a limited company to allow it to participate in the capital goods scheme and avail of VAT recoupment during the construction phase. Now is the time to address the problem. VISUAL, one of Ireland's leading contemporary arts spaces, needs funding. VISUAL was an €18 million development, a project jointly funded by the local authority and with a grant of €3.17 million from the Department under the access programme.

Carlow County Council and the Arts Council have provided funding in the past; however, neither will have such resources following Covid-19. It will be like borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

The centre is regularly involved in making funding applications but we can support it and what it is trying to do if we just bring it under the Department and allocate funding from central government. I am seeking that today. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, several times and to every Minister I could to try to get funding for VISUAL. We have the most beautiful arts space and theatre that you ever came across. It is right in the centre of Carlow town. We are so proud of it but we do not get enough funding. We need to avail of the funding stream from the Government, but that is not happening at present. I ask the Minister to ask the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to provide funding from central government.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I am presenting this information on behalf of the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin.

Primary support for the arts is delivered by the Arts Council. In 2022, the Minister allocated a record €130 million to the Arts Council. She was pleased to retain the €130 million in funding for the council in 2023 in recognition of the transformational impact that funding has had on the development of the sector, enabling the council to support more artists and arts organisations than ever before.

The council is independent in its funding decisions under the Arts Act 2003 and the Minister or officials in her Department cannot intervene in this decision-making.

Recent decades have seen the development of a nationwide infrastructure of venues and arts centres, many of which were initiated and funded by local authorities. Current funding provided to these arts centres by local authorities and the Arts Council is critical to ensure that a stable and vibrant network can be maintained. Local authorities are central to the support and development of the arts in Ireland through their own arts offices and through the resourcing and funding of arts centres.

In the context outlined it is understood that the council has made a number of funding awards to the arts centre referred to by the Deputy. This includes €210,000 of arts centre funding as well as commissions awards under its programme for young people children and education. I also understand that Carlow County Council has been awarded €100,000 by the council under the long-standing local arts partnership funding scheme.

Under the Creative Communities initiative of the Creative Ireland programme, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, together with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, provides funding to each of the 31 local authorities to enable them to implement their individual cultural and creativity strategies from 2018 to 2022. Through Creative Communities, substantial funding has been provided to Carlow County Council for the period 2018 to 2022 and it has supported an extensive programme of engagement across the arts, culture and creativity in County Carlow.

These centres are also supported through capital schemes operated by the Department. The funding is available under the national development plan for cultural and creativity investment programmes. These are closely aligned with Creative Ireland and include a range of investments in regional arts and cultural facilities.

The cultural capital scheme from 2019 to 2022 is a €4.7 million capital investment scheme for arts and culture centres administered by the Department to enhance the existing stock of arts and culture centres across the country. In recent years, the arts centre in question was successful under a number of capital schemes. The centre was also awarded funding under the regional museum exhibition scheme and further details can be accessed on the Department’s website.

Capital funding for the outdoor public space scheme has been provided to local authorities to adapt, equip or otherwise improve public spaces for cultural and events activities taking account of public health guidance and of the needs of the local arts community. The Minister awarded €250,000 to Carlow County Council in 2021 to provide an outer public space at the Carlow Exchange in Carlow town. I understand that this project has now been completed and was officially opened last month and will be a centre for a range of social, cultural and educational events in Carlow.

In summary, the Deputy will know that the arts centre along with the local authority is in receipt of funding from a wide range of public funding sources, including the Arts Council, which is independent in its funding decisions.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for her reply and the Minister, Deputy Martin for her funding for the outdoor public space at the Carlow Exchange in Carlow town. This is beautiful for the community. I am aware of the €210,000 awarded by the Arts Council, which I welcome, but again I feel that this answer is not a good one in the sense that we have a fabulous building and a crisis with the cost of living and heating and electrical costs, and the different factors associated with that.

We are now in a position, having gone through Covid-19, as the Minister will be aware, where one of the most significantly hit sectors was the arts sector when artists through their work could not entertain. In Carlow, groups that were to present visually could not do so because of Covid and this was through no fault of anyone. This brought something of a crisis to that sector. Why do we have a beautiful building? Unless we can sustain it and unless people can use it because they can afford to, such as community groups and artists, then we have a problem. While I welcome and am very thankful for this funding, we need a great deal more funding into the future. From talking to staff of Carlow County Council, I know they are thankful for the funding that has been given, but on the bigger picture and scale going into the future, we need central government funding because if we do not get it, I do not know whether the council can continue putting funding into the VISUAL centre to keep it going.

We have the best volunteers in VISUAL who go in and spend hours of their time giving back to the people of Carlow and all around the country and to everyone who runs it. I am very proud of it but it is important with the cost of living and of everything now, that extra funding be provided. I thank the Minister.

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. Again, this reply has been delivered by me on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. As outlined previously, primary support for the arts is delivered by the Arts Council. The topic raised by the Deputy asks that funding from the council for a gallery be extended to its in-house theatre. Under the Arts Act of 2003, the council is independent in its funding decisions and the Minister or officials in her Department cannot intervene in this decision-making. It would appear that this is a matter for the centre concerned, in consultation with the Arts Council, and may involve the local authority. The arts centre in question has been successful in sourcing capital funding from the Department under its capital schemes over a number of years. Under budget 2023, additional capital funding is proposed for the arts, which will include a new capital scheme, details of which will be announced in due course.

I acknowledge the passion and belief the Deputy has in the provision of this arts centre and I also acknowledge, as she has outlined herself, the tremendous work of volunteers who have lent so much to this particular centre. She spoke passionately of the importance the arts and I could not agree with her more in that respect. It is important that we do all that we can to seek to support that sector into the future.

I reiterate what the Minister, Deputy Martin stated in her reply where she has made it clear that a number funding streams have been made available to this particular arts centre, and that is as it should be. She specifically referred to the €210,000 and other streams of funding, which the Deputy has particularly welcomed. I will communicate to the Minister the passion with which the Deputy has spoken on this issue, the importance of this facility to all of Carlow and to the advancement and enhancement of the arts programme, the provision and sustainability of the arts into the future, and the Deputy's determination to secure that in the future.