Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Warfield for raising the matter of the Creative Europe programme and for highlighting this important EU funding stream which is available to the Irish creative and cultural sectors. The Minister, Deputy Martin gives her apologies. She was not available to come at short notice. Creative Europe is the European Union's funding programme to support the culture and audiovisual sectors. The second Creative Europe programme for the period 2021 to 2027 was launched in May 2021 with a budget of € 2.44 billion. This is a welcome 50% increase on the previous programme budget. From this, €10.7 million has been awarded to Irish organisations in 2021 and 2022.

Creative Europe Desk Ireland is the designated national contact point for the Creative Europe programme. The desk is a key interface between our cultural and creative sectors and the EU Commission. It works to inform the sector on funding opportunities and support it to navigate the application process for schemes under the programme. The national co-ordinator for the desk is Screen Ireland, which is delegated by the Department. The remit of the desk is to promote the Creative Europe programme at local, regional and national level, and to facilitate Irish participation in the programme by providing expert advice and help to the Irish cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors. This includes advice on accessing Creative Europe funding, thereby ensuring the submission of high-quality funding applications. The Minister's Department works with the desk to help promote the programme, raising awareness of the funding supports available to the cultural and creative sectors. The Department also represents Ireland on the Creative Europe programme committee comprised of representatives of the member states who review the proposed annual work programme and raise any issues with implementation at EU level.

The Creative Europe programme comprises three strands: media, culture and cross-sectoral. The media strand supports the European film and audiovisual industries to develop, distribute and promote European works. It also funds markets, networking and training opportunities. To date in the programme, more than €5 million has been awarded to Irish companies across the film, documentary, animation, TV and video games sectors through the media funding strand in 2021 and 2022.

The culture strand supports a wide range of cultural and creative sectors and encourages co-operation and exchange among cultural organisations and artists at European level. Through the culture funding strand to date, €5.16 million has been awarded in 2021 and 2022 to Irish organisations involved in projects and activities. Successful projects featuring Irish partners cover a range of art forms, including visual arts, music, theatre, opera, literature, design and craft, and architecture.

In regard to the cross-cultural strand, more than half a million euro has been invested in Irish companies in 2021 and 2022. This funding builds on allocations under the previous Creative Europe programme, which ran from 2014 to 2020. In that period, €13 million was awarded under the media strand to more than 80 Irish companies. Of this, in excess of €1.8 million was awarded to the audiovisual and video games sector in the west, with €500,000 invested in Gaeltacht companies. Beneficiaries include the Cork International Film Festival, the Galway Film Fair, Cartoon Saloon's Oscar-nominated animated features, Element Pictures's Oscar-winner "The Favourite", which received a best actress Oscar for Olivia Coleman, alongside projects from more than 80 Irish companies.

Through the culture strand, 98 Irish organisations were involved in projects and activities, with in excess of €6.3 million in funding coming directly to these organisations. Some notable and interesting Irish projects include CraftHub EU led by Carlow County Council; Cultural Adaptations, a greening project with Axis Ballymun and Codema; and Keychange, which is about gender equality in the music industry, with First Music Contact and sponsored by the Irish Music Rights Organisation, IMRO.

I reiterate that the budget for the second Creative Europe programme for the period 2021 to 2027 includes a welcome 50% increase on the previous programme budget. I encourage engagement with Creative Europe Desk Ireland for those seeking funding under the current programme to make the most of this opportunity. It is heartening to see the increased level of allocations to date compared with the previous programme and it is hoped this will continue.