Máire Hoctor (Tipperary North, Fianna Fail)

I am conscious I am in the company of two Senators who have made enormous contributions in this area, Senator Cecilia Keaveney and my Tipperary colleague, Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú. I am happy to be able to deliver the response of the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Deputy Séamus Brennan.

The Minister assumes the Senator is referring to the arts and education report, which the Arts Council was due to present to him during the summer of 2007. The Arts Council has presented him with a copy of the report and he has studied its contents, but as the report has not yet been published it would be inappropriate to comment on its recommendations at this stage. The background to the report is that in 2004, a steering committee, which involved representatives from the arts and education field, the Arts Council and the Department of Education and Science, was set up to develop guidelines and principles for good arts in schools practice. The committee met on numerous occasions during 2004.

In 2005, Towards Best Practice, a publication of a comprehensive set of principles and guidelines to enable the arts community, teachers and schools to work more effectively together grew out of the discussions of the steering committee. In October 2006, the Minister directed the Arts Council to establish a committee to advise on matters relating to arts and education. Having regard for the statutory functions of the Arts Council as set out in section 9 of the Arts Act 2003, and in accordance with section 21 of that Act, a special committee was established to advise the Arts Council on how best to align the council's strategies for the promotion and encouragement of the arts with the priorities of the formal education system.

The members of the arts and education committee included Mary Nunan, chairperson and Arts Council member; Jerome Morrissey, National Centre for Training in Technology; Pat MacSitric, assistant chief inspector, Department of Education and Science; Mr. Derek West, chair of National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals; and Orlaith McBride, Arts Council member.

In its deliberations, the committee had regard to the wide ranging demands on the school curriculum, bearing in mind that responsibility for determining the content of the school curriculum rests with the Minister for Education and Science, and to the need to prioritise and cost its recommendations. These recommendations must have regard both to the resource implications for the Arts Council and the fact that the budgetary resources likely to be available over the next four years to the Minister for Education and Science for the development of services in the education sector must be allocated to fund existing policy commitments.

The committee also had regard, subject to the prioritisation and costing of its recommendations, to the identification of what additional sources of funding, if any, might be available to fund its recommendations, and to the roles and partnerships that are appropriate for relevant State and other agencies and bodies in this context, including the Department of Education and Science, the Arts Council, vocational committees and local authorities. The focus of the special committee's remit was to make specific deliverable recommendations for implementation over three to five years.

The Minister believes that it is important to promote an appreciation of and engagement in arts and culture from early education and that this should be a lifelong learning experience. Primary and post-primary schools are key education sites in providing for children and young people's education in the arts. Early exposure to the arts is essential to develop and nurture the young person's creativity and imagination, traits which are essential to becoming a rounded well-balanced individual. A society's wealth and well-being should not be measured by, or be dependent on, its economic prosperity alone, but also by an appreciation and understanding of arts and culture. The fact that the Government will spend over €200 million in 2008 on the arts and cultural sector is testament to its commitment to this area.

The Minister is currently considering the report further and will discuss it with his colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, and with the Arts Council. His officials have already had bilateral discussions with the Department of Education and Science and the Arts Council to discuss it. All three parties are due to meet in the new year to discuss its recommendations in further detail. As those discussions are ongoing it would be premature of him to comment further at this stage.