Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As my party's spokesperson on the arts I will concentrate on the initiatives that have been introduced by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan. Senator Keane has referred to the other points that are worthy of discussion. Last May, the Minister, Deputy Deenihan, announced the introduction of a new philanthropic initiative on a pilot basis for arts and cultural organisations.

As the Minister, Deputy Hogan, has stated, the philanthropic leverage initiative was designed to encourage philanthropic sponsorship and endowment of the arts from private sources. The initiative, established with funding of ¤230,000 for 2012, has provided an incentive to arts organisations to proactively seek new funding relationships with sponsors which deliver private sector financial support, thereby increasing the overall funding available to the arts.

The initiative was available across projects of varying scale, geography and art forms to not-for-profit organisations for arts programming projects. The organisations approved for funding under the initiative were required to procure matching philanthropic funds and complete their drawdown from the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in 2012. Matched funding could not come from public funds or any public sector organisation. It was anticipated that a multiple of 3.5 on the pilot initiative funding of ¤230,000 would result in philanthropic funding of some ¤800,000 being raised for the arts. The initiative proved to be very successful with a multiplier of 4.26 in philanthropic donations being leveraged for the arts.

Therefore, the arts got a boost of more than ¤1 million last year of which less than one fifth came from the public purse. That was a real result. Senator Mac Conghail has already mentioned the fact.

The Minister recently announced details of new philanthropy initiatives for 2013. There was a slight reduction in the funding to ¤210,000, which will be available to arts organisations under the scheme. The terms of the scheme allow arts and culture organisations to apply to the philanthropy initiative for funding if they can generate funding from the private sector. There are various scales. Up to ¤5,000 in funding can be accessed through the scheme if the organisation can match each euro from the taxpayer with ¤2 from the private sector. A total of ¤10,000 can be accessed if an organisation can match each euro with ¤3 from the private sector. The sum of ¤15,000 can be accessed if each euro can be matched by ¤4 from the private sector.

Priority is given to arts-in-education projects. Everything is being dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis but an advantage is given to arts-in education projects aimed at DEIS schools, which I welcome. This year the majority of philanthropy initiative funding will be directed towards the arts and culture organisations seeking to support projects that include an educational component. That is designed to support another of the Department?s policy initiatives on arts and culture. The arts-in-education charter was launched in January by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Deenihan, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn. The charter sets out a range of actions to be undertaken by the two Departments, the cultural institutions, the Arts Council and arts organisations. In 2013 it is hoped that the philanthropy initiative will continue to provide an incentive to arts organisations to engage in fund-raising. It will also encourage arts and culture organisations to engage creatively with children and young people and add to their education. In so doing, they will help to foster the artists and audiences of the future.

The Minister has already mentioned RAISE and the Arts Council. I welcome the presence of representatives from Business to Arts. The Department has provided support to Business to Arts for a number of years. In each of the past three years that has been allocated to the delivery of new-stream programmes which builds fund-raising skills in the cultural sector in this country. I have personal experience of the good work of Business to Arts through the Lundbeck art awards. I acknowledge the work of Business to Arts in supporting arts initiatives.

A cultural technology grant has also been provided by the Department. In 2010 it awarded a grant of ¤20,000 under the cultural technology grant scheme to Business to Arts for the Fund it initiative. Business to Arts initially matched the figure with private funding and since then has attracted additional foundation funds for the project. As Senator Mac Conghail mentioned, dialogue between the Departments is very important in order to achieve the shared ambitions. Flexibility is also important in such an area. We must be realistic given the size and means of the country, especially at the moment, and ensure we focus on more than philanthropy. We must recognise other sources of private investment. I thank the Minister.