Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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59. 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. [20086/17]

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 cu lture 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.