Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am grateful to the Seanad Office and the office of the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. It follows on from the Commencement matter I tabled last week in respect of Project Ireland 2040 and the capital plan for national cultural institutions.

Cruinniú na nÓg will take place on Saturday, 11 June. It is an initiative of Creative Ireland, in partnership with local authorities, RTÉ and the Department. Events for children and young people will take place in the National Concert Hall, the Gallery of Photography Ireland, the Ark, the Hugh Lane Gallery and Dublin city libraries to name just a few locations in this city.However, there are events taking place for thousands of children and young people throughout the country. It is important that we give Cruinniú na nÓg a lift. I commend the teams bringing it together, namely, the Department staff, Creative Ireland, the artists and facilitators, the arts officers in local authorities, Youth Theatre Ireland and all organisations that support our young people. I mention in particular Youth Theatre Ireland which will host introductory theatre workshops, including a workshop by Dublin Youth Theatre. The contribution of youth theatres throughout our country is extraordinary. It seems as though everyone in theatre has come through these structures. It is good to know that children and young people have the kinds of places, spaces like youth theatres, to go to express and be themselves, feel safe, build characters, write stories and create situations in a fun and creative environment. That is beautiful.

The Creative Ireland programme has recently been extended from this year until 2027. The programme for Government commitments include developing a creative industries roadmap. I raised this matter with the Minister, Deputy Martin, on 24 November 2021. I appreciate she is not here today but if I ask the questions, perhaps they can be conveyed to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

It was my understanding that the roadmap for the creative industries would be published in the latest Create Ireland programme, from 2017 to 2022. The roadmap was being finalised in 2019 or thereabouts. Hundreds of meetings were held with academics, stakeholders, small businesses, industry representatives and EU officials. A considerable amount of work and resources have gone into the roadmap, which was supposed to be published. However, to date, no plan has been published. There is obviously a problem somewhere. I am not sure if it will be mentioned in the Minister of State's statement, but it is hard to see what the blockage is from the outside. When will this creative industries roadmap, as part of Creative Ireland and the programme for Government, be published? I also wish to give a lift to Cruinniú na nÓg, which takes place on 11 June.