Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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200. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which she expects to generate interest and awareness of the arts throughout all regions in the country with particular reference to encouragement of local voluntary organisations involved in local productions; the extent to which she expects to be in a position to offer grant aid assistance, directly or through the Arts Council in 2016; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31404/16]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Most of my Department's arts and culture budget is allocated to the agencies under its remit. Within these allocations, the Arts Council is the primary State agency for funding the arts. In this regard, I secured significant additional funding for the Arts Council as part of Budget 2017. This will see an increase in the Arts Council allocation of €5 m or 8%. Details of the Council's funding decisions can be found on its website at the following link www.artscouncil.ie/Who_we_funded/.

Direct funding from my Department for arts primarily relates to capital funding for individual projects, as well as the promotion of Irish arts and culture abroad through Culture Ireland. A small number of summer schools and similar events receive funding from my Department. Details of these are on my Department’s website at .

In addition, my Department’s support for commemorative events can cover many artistic and cultural responses to the Decade of Commemorations. This year in particular the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme is providing a rich and inclusive diversity of events both nationally and internationally, to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.

The Programme for a Partnership Government committed to the publication of Culture 2025 as a priority and the draft Framework Policy Culture 2025 /Éire Ildánach was forwarded to the Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in July.

The Culture 2025/Éire Ildánach framework policy sets out:

-a series of high-level objectives under the heading of Enrich, Engage, Participateto establish Government vision in relation to culture and society in Ireland;

- a set of key values including the intrinsic value of culture, the right to participate in the cultural life of the nation, and the role of culture in fostering a more sustainable future in Ireland; and

- A series of priority measures for implementation across Government and public bodies.

I believe that it is important to continue momentum in terms of delivery of the priorities set out in the framework policy and to build on the positive legacy of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme.

My Department has, therefore, been developing a cross-Government initiative to mainstream culture and creativity in the life of the nation and to promote individual, community and national well-being. This will focus on boosting cultural provision and participation in communities and harnessing the goodwill and engagement generated by the commemorative programme this year. It will also act as the main vehicle to take forward the priorities identified in Culture 2025.

I have secured funding of €5m in Budget 2017 to underpin this new initiative and I intend to announce further details in the coming weeks.