Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Renua Ireland)
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21. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the drafting of Ireland's first national culture policy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39258/15]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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At its meeting on 20 June 2014, the Government approved the drafting of a National Cultural Policy, Culture 2025, which will set out the high level aims and policies of the Government in this area in the period up until 2025. The broad aim of Culture 2025will be to reinforce the crucial role of culture in society by supporting the cultural sector and providing the conditions which will allow the sector to develop and flourish across all sectors of society. Culture 2025will seek to reflect the modern multi-cultural Ireland and will be uplifting, accessible, relevant and easy to communicate.

To facilitate public consultation on the proposed policy my Department published a discussion document on 8 August last.

My Department followed this up by holding a series of local workshops to enable people across the country to have their views heard. Meetings took place in Cavan, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Kilkenny and Dublin.

The Dublin event followed the participative World Café model and was held under the Open Public Debates programme. Over 600 people have attended the consultation events and over 200 written submissions have been received. The closing date for receipt of submissions was 31 October 2015.

My Department also established both an Experts Group and a Steering Group made up of cultural stakeholders who are inputting into the consultation and drafting process.

The feedback from the regional meetings and the submissions received will now be examined in detail as part of the process of drafting the cultural policy. I intend that this will be a high level and living document to set out the framework of cultural policy for the next decade.

I intend to submit the policy document to Government in due course with the intention of publishing it early in the New Year.