Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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61. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the estimated amount of funding that will be delivered to each local authority under pillar two of the Creative Ireland programme; the details of the county co-ordinators; the framework which will be used to administer the programme; and if the funding will be ring-fenced for the arts. [4182/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government recently launched the Creative Ireland Programme – Clár Éire Ildánach 2017 – 2022. This is a cross-Government initiative to mainstream culture and creativity in the life of the nation and to promote individual, community and national wellbeing. This will focus on boosting cultural provision and participation in communities and harnessing the goodwill and engagement generated by the 2016 commemorative programme.

The core proposition of this programme is that participation in cultural activity drives personal and collective creativity, with significant implications for individual and societal wellbeing and achievement. The programme is based on five pillars:

- Enabling the creative potential of every child

- Enabling creativity in every community

- Investing in our creative and cultural infrastructure

- Establishing Ireland as a centre of excellence in media production

- Unifying our global reputation.

The second pillar – Enabling creativity in every community – will be implemented primarily through our local authorities. This is because local authorities are the primary instruments of community engagement and, second, local authorities have a particular capacity for local programme delivery, especially in the context of citizen engagement.

I have asked each local authority to establish a Culture Team bringing together arts officers, librarians, heritage officers, museum curators, archivists and other relevant personnel which will be led by a Director of Services, with a nominated person as 'Creative Ireland Co-ordinator'. The primary role of the Culture Team will be to develop a Culture and Creativity Plan, reflecting the overall structure and aims of the national strategy programme, and then to drive public participation in creative cultural activity in each local authority area.

I have made a specific allocation of €1 million to the local authorities towards the implementation of the 2017 Creative Ireland Plans out of the overall funding of €5m which I secured in Budget 2017 to underpin this new initiative.