Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)

I am here to speak about a couple of the schemes that receive extraordinarily small amounts of funding, yet do an incredible amount of heavy lifting in terms of arts and culture. We hear a lot of discussion about the importance of Ireland's cultural heritage, how much that is part of the identity we have internationally, how essential it is to our internal identity and the role it plays in society. However, the funding that allows people to engage with culture and allows actual creativity to flourish within our communities is still deeply inadequate.

I am going to highlight a couple of the areas, two schemes that are of particular concern. Under the cultural capital stream E, the stated aim is the enhancement of the existing stock of the arts and cultural centres throughout the country.Since 2023, only €996,876, or less than €1 million, has been allocated to the 32 arts and cultural organisations across the country for their capital stock, or their buildings, resources and facilities. This year, there has been an announcement of €271,400 for eight institutions, including Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford and the Town Hall Theatre in Galway city. Previous recipients have included the Seanchaí Kerry Literary and Cultural Centre, Tuar Ard arts centre in Westmeath, and South Tipperary Arts Centre. I am listing some of these names because these spaces, art centres and small theatres play an incredibly important role in their communities. All the spaces, such as that in Westmeath and the theatre in Manorhamilton, play an incredibly important role in making creativity and cultural practice visible and possible in local communities. It was a revolutionary thing that they were introduced and that they began to flourish. These spaces also play a vital role in facilitating arts performers and artists across Ireland who do not have the option others might have in New York or London, where a production can run for a year. Instead, they may have two weeks here and one week there. They build a circuit around the country that allows them to fund the development of their theatre, art and performances. The organisations have received only €1 million.

The visual artists workplace scheme gets a maximum of €6 million, provided by the Department, for the development of projects. Counties and city councils can apply for funding up to only €300,000 under the scheme. By comparison, the sports facilities fund, overseen by the same Department, was allocated €230 million last year. For the incredibly important arts organisations, we are talking about €1 million, €6 million or grants in the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of euro. I want to know what is happening to reconfigure and really resource this area. Dublin City Council has shown that of the 126 buildings classed as multidisciplinary community and arts centres, such as Axis Ballymun and The Complex, only 11, or 9%, are developed to a standard sufficient to allow for the production or consumption of professional work. They are not at a standard where they can be used. In my reply to the Minister of State’s response, I will give some positive examples but also some of the areas where more work is needed.