Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 33: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the role he sees for Irish embassies in promoting Irish heritage and culture; the efforts he has made to ensure this potential is realised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12488/12]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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As the Deputy will be aware, my colleague the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is responsible for the international promotion of Irish culture under the Arts Act 2003. This is primarily accomplished through Culture Ireland which operates under the aegis of the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. My Department works closely with Culture Ireland, both at headquarters level and through the Embassy network, to promote our culture. This close working relationship is reflected in the fact that a senior official of my Department serves in an ex officiocapacity on the board of Culture Ireland.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also manages a grant-in-aid for cultural relations with other countries. This allows for modest funding to be provided for cultural activity by the Embassy network. Every effort is made to leverage further promotional benefits from such spending, complementary to the activity of Culture Ireland. This was done very effectively in relation to the Imagine Ireland initiative in the United States during 2011, which saw a celebration of Irish arts, with 1,200 artists participating in five hundred events in over forty of the US States. Imagine Ireland featured very close co-operation between Culture Ireland, my Department and our Embassy and Consulates General in the United States. In total last year, we funded 258 cultural projects across the globe involving 58 of our missions from the Embassy network through the grant-in-aid.

During the past year, a new travelling exhibition on the life and works of W.B. Yeats, based on the National Library's original exhibition, was also financed from my Department's cultural grant-in-aid. This Yeats exhibition has been produced in eight languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) and with the active engagement of our Embassy network it has already toured more than 50 cities in 14 countries. My Department and Culture Ireland both support financially the programme of the Irish Cultural Centre in Paris. The Centre is managed by the Fondation Irlandaise, a Franco-Irish organisation, and the Ambassador of Ireland to France is actively involved in its activities.

I would add, finally, that Culture Ireland is the Irish member of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and, in a further reflection of the close co-operation between that agency and my Department, the relevant Embassy or Consulate represents Culture Ireland when appropriate at EUNIC meetings overseas.