Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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18. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the budgetary resources and number of staff she has allocated to the commemorations unit within her Department for 2015-16. [10173/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Last year, I established a dedicated 2016 Project Office in my Department, which has responsibility for co-ordinating and leading on all activities relating to the development and implementation of the Ireland 2016initiative, focused on the commemoration of the centenary of the events of the 1916 Easter Rising. To date, four officials from my Department have been assigned full-time to the Project Office. The Director of Market Development at Fáilte Ireland, together with one additional staff member of Fáilte Ireland, has also been seconded to my Department to assist with the development and delivery of the programme. Two persons have been recruited on fixed-term contracts under an open procurement process and I anticipate that further staff resources will be assigned to the Project Office in the period ahead.

My Department also has a separate Decade of Commemorations Unit, with 4 staff, which works with interested parties to co-ordinate and support other anniversary events as they arise along the historic centenary timeline. Key events for the Unit in 2015 will be the commemorations to mark Gallipoli and the sinking of the Lusitania.

In terms of financial resources, I have secured an allocation of €4 million in current funding to support the development in 2015 of the Ireland 2016initiative. This allocation will be used to engage with and support a wide range of activities and events by interested groups, including local community groups, as well as Irish language, educational and cultural projects. The allocation of €4 million is in addition to the capital provision of €22 million in 2015, which will be allocated to a number of flagship commemorations projects. In addition, I have allocated €300,000 in 2015 to support the Decade of Commemorations programme.

Final 2016 allocations will be subject to the normal Budgetary and Estimates processes.