Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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742. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the funding that is being provided for the arts in 2017; the amount which will be allocated by the agencies or organisations under the remit of her Department; the amount which is being allocated to arts projects directly by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20092/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Details of the funding allocations made available to my Department are published each year in the Revised Estimates Volume with the outturn published in the annual Appropriation Account. These publications are available on the website of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and on the website of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. As is shown in the published figures, the 2017 allocation to Arts , Culture and Film is €158.261m and most of this is allocated to the agencies under the aegis of the Department. Details of the expenditure outturns are published each year in the Appropriation Account and these are published by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General at

I secured significant additional funding for the Arts Council and the Irish Film Boardin Budget 2017. The increase in the Arts Council's allocation in 2017 is €5 million, or 8%, and will assist the Council greatly in implementing its 10-year strategy Making Great Art Work (2016-2025). I also secured an increase of €2 million for the Irish Film Board, representing a 14% increase in its annual budget.

Budget 2017 also includes:

- increased funding for all of the National Cultural Institutions;

- an increase of €1 million for Culture Ireland;

- an additional €1 million to the Heritage Council; and

- funding of €5m for the implementation of the Creative Ireland Programme.

Where my Department makes direct grants to organisations, the figures are published on the website of my Department at . The figures for 2017 will be published in due course.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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743. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount of funding that will be made available to regional arts centres across the country; the criteria by which these funding decisions are made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20093/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I recently announced details of grants of over €9 million in capital funding for arts and culture centres across the country. This capital scheme is the most significant investment in arts and cultural centres in a decade and will target investment at a range of different facilities, including arts centres, theatres, galleries and museums, as well as artists’ studios and creative spaces. This kind of investment is at the centre of what I am trying to achieve through Creative Ireland and the Action Plan for Rural Development. The Arts and Culture Capital Scheme was considerably over-subscribed. The Department received 106 applications in total under Stream 1 and 2 seeking total funding of over €20m with eligible requests for funding totalling over €14.6m. The detailed selection criteria and eligibility requirements were published in the Guidelines of the Scheme. There was a two stage assessment process. The first stage involved all applications being reviewed on receipt to ensure eligibility. All eligible applications were then forwarded to an Assessment Panel which undertook the second stage of the assessment of the applications which advanced from stage one. The Assessment Panel reviewed each eligible application within the defined criteria and scored them accordingly. The recommendations were then forwarded to me for decision as set out in the published scheme conditions. Following these assessment processes, 56 projects are being funded. Seven flagship projects will receive substantial funding allocations while a further 49 projects will receive funding ranging from €20,000 to €276,000. Full details of these can be found on my Departments website.

I will be opening a further Stream of funding under this Scheme shortly. It will provide small capital grants of up to €20,000 to not-for-profit organisations with a defined arts and cultural remit. While the amounts involved are relatively modest, the grants will in themselves make a huge difference to individual organisations and will be of particular benefit to local cultural centres throughout rural Ireland.