Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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147. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she is satisfied that Ireland’s investment in the arts is at the bottom of the European table; and the steps she will take to resolve this problem. [13904/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Programme for a Partnership Government contains a very important commitment to work to progressively increase funding to the arts, including the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board, as the economy continues to improve. I can assure the Deputy that I will be engaging with my colleagues in Government and with the Oireachtas to seek to advance this commitment in the context of the forthcoming estimates and budgetary processes.

The issue referred to in the Deputy's question arises from a Council of Europe research project called Compendium - Cultural Policies and Trends in Europewhich includes figures on expenditure on culture across Europe. I understand that many European counties are not included in the figures, including ten EU member states. The data for the Compendium project are provided by independent researchers and it is not a standardised system for collection of statistics.

I further understand that the Compendium itself warns that data provided by the researchers are not comparable across countries because each researcher includes different elements in the definition of culture and these elements are reflected in the figures for public expenditure. Figures can also include some, or all, of national, regional or local expenditure.

The issue of a definition of culture and of capturing public expenditure on culture is one which was discussed in the public consultation process that was held for the purpose of developing Ireland's first national cultural policy, Culture 2025.This will be reflected in the draft policy document which I intend to submit to Government for consideration in the coming weeks.

Expenditure on the arts in Ireland comes from multiple sources, both public and private. I understand that the CSO does not produce national statistics that capture the totality of this expenditure as a percentage of GDP. I do consider, however, that further research on this issue is warranted in the context of Culture 2025.