Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein)
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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.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I will be making a statement on the future of the Creative Ireland programme on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, who is currently in Cabinet. Many of the questions the Senator has asked are given a comprehensive response. In December 2016, a new all-of-government initiative, entitled clár Éire IIdánach or the Creative Ireland programme, was approved as a legacy project arising from the Ireland 2016 centenary programme and as the main implementation vehicle for national cultural policy priorities.

More recently, the Government agreed that significant progress had been made to date to support each citizen in realising his or her creative potential and to mainstream creativity into public policy across Departments through the implementation of the Creative Ireland Programme 2017 to 2022. It was recognised, however, that there was a requirement to provide an early indication of the preferred direction of travel concerning the future of the programme after 2022, to which the Senator alluded. Departments and public bodies, including local authorities and stakeholders, in particular the community and voluntary sectors, would require a lead-in period to prepare key strands of the new phase of the programme.

Since detailed work to develop a new five-year programme would also, among other things, require extensive consultations, including with the public, a two-step process to secure Government agreement is being pursued. This process consists of an initial in-principle approval for a further five-year framework for the Creative Ireland Programme 2023 to 2027 to enable the necessary programme detail to be developed in collaboration with other Departments, public bodies and key stakeholders and a final more detailed version of the programme, to be brought back to Government for its agreement in autumn 2022 prior to its publication, launch and implementation on an all-of-government basis.

In February 2022, the Government provided the initial in-principle approval.In so doing the Government reaffirmed the vision of the Creative Ireland programme to mainstream creativity in the life of the nation so that individually and collectively, in our personal lives and in our institutions, we can realise our full creative potential thereby promoting individual, community and national well-being to which we all aspire. The programme identified issues of access as it sought to reach new audiences, in particular those not currently engaging. It will therefore continue to collaborate and communicate with as broad a network as possible as it seeks to empower communities nationwide through its values of collaboration and communication, community empowerment and internationalisation. There is undoubtedly a recognition that significant scope remains for continuing implementation regarding children and young people through Creative Youth. The publication of the Creative Youth plan in 2017 provided a vision for which there has been substantial success and delivery across the primary areas centred on educational settings, community engagement and the development of a professional education and arts supporting ecosystem.

Cruinniú na nÓg, the national day of free creativity for children, is now in its fifth year and has become firmly embedded in the national calendar. The 31 local authorities are crucial to its delivery and the programme officials continue to refine an approach of key strategic partnerships with community and voluntary organisations of national reach that can complement and further enable the efforts of local authorities. As an aside I should mention that Cruinniú na nÓg takes place this year on 11 June.

While advances have been made regarding the audiovisual action plan significant benefits are anticipated from a focus on creative industries more broadly. To that end discussions are again under way among officials regarding the preparation of a roadmap for the creative industries. I will come back with more in the next contribution. I thank the Senator.

Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein)
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Creative Ireland has been very good at bringing people around the table and bringing stakeholders together. The statement the Minister of State has made is very helpful for my own information. I will analyse it.

There is undoubted success from the Creative Youth programme. I look forward to meeting with more facilitators, artists and schools that have taken part to get their sense of that. Schools are provided with €4,000 and I wonder if that is enough. Are we reaching as many schools as we can? Is there room for an increased budget in order to reach more schools and more after-school environments?

I welcome the fact that discussions are again under way about the roadmap for the creative industries. We were promised that roadmap in 2019. As I said before, there is a blockage somewhere. From the outside it is difficult for me to see where that is. I hope that will be published as soon as possible so that we can have sight of it and start the implementation. A good deal of resources go into that work and it will not be relevant forever.

Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)
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I am conscious the Minister of State has much to say, and there is much good news in light of what the Senator was saying, so she should not put herself under enormous pressure. Take a little latitude.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The blockage over the past couple of years has been Covid-19 and the fact that a great many organisations were not able to meet as they normally did and had to go online. We missed the benefits of the arts, culture and creativity. They are so important for our well-being, in particular mental health and well-being. It was brought into sharp focus during Covid-19. I firmly believe enhanced collaboration and integration across the arts, health and social care sectors through a focus on creative health and well-being could systemically and sustainably embed these benefits in Ireland.

To inform this approach my own Department, together with the Department of Health, the HSE and the Arts Council, are collaborating to host a very important national symposium on 22 June which will consider the evidence base regarding the health benefits from creative arts and discuss arts and health activities in hospitals that can help deliver better health outcomes for patients and their carers. The Senator will be aware of the Covid-19 concerts that were held in nursing homes over the past two years. Now they are delivering these concerts to community nursing units and day care centres, which is absolutely phenomenal.When I attended an outdoor concert in Dungarvan Community Hospital in my constituency, there was one particular lady there with dementia who could not remember anything. As soon as the music started, she knew every single word. It was absolutely phenomenal.

They will also explore the operational role of the arts, cultural and creative sectors in delivering healthcare and well-being in the community. The Creative Ireland Programme 2023-2027 will therefore focus on the following strategic areas: creative youth; creative communities; creative industries; creative health and well-being; and creative climate action and sustainability. I think it is an area that we all very much welcome because people have missed out so much in the past couple of years. To see young people, middle aged people and older people enjoying the arts, culture and everything we have so much of in this country is very important.

There is a huge amount of detail in the response and I acknowledge that. If the Senator has any further questions, he can take them up with the Minister, if that is okay. I thank him for his interest.

Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I understand the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is staying with us for the rest of the Commencement matters. I thank her for that.