Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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159. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if progress has been made in the provision and planning for the 383,000 young persons served by the non-formal or youth work sector to access the arts (details supplied); the stakeholders her Department is in dialogue with in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21300/17]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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160. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the implications of her plan to fast track the implementation of the Arts in Education Charter; if this will impact on provision for 383,000 young persons, many of whom are young persons with fewer opportunities involved in the non-formal and youth work sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21301/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 159 and 160 together.

TheCreative Ireland Programme, which the Taoiseach and I launched in December, places a special focus on “Enabling the Creative Potential of Every Child”. Building on the Arts in Education Charter this will involve the development of an integrated plan – Creative Children -to enable every child in Ireland to access tuition in music, drama, art and coding by 2022. My Department officials continue to work with relevant Departments and other stakeholders to develop this plan with a launch timeframe of early Autumn 2017.

The Creative Childen plan will build on work to date in implementing the Arts in Education Charter where my Department continues to work closely with the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Youth and Children Affairs and the Arts Council to deliver the key objectives of the Charter within the wider context now of the Creative Ireland Programme to include non-mainstream education.

The objectives of the Charter have been achieved largely through existing structures such as education centres. Good progress has been made to date in terms of launching Ireland’s first Arts in Education Portal, holding National Arts and Education Days and developing Teacher Artist Partnerships through the Education and Training Centres. Indeed, I look forward to attending the next National Arts Day, this Saturday 6 May, in St Patrick's College DCU, Drumcondra.

Arising from the significant increase of support of €5m which I secured for the Arts Council as part of Budget 2017, I am pleased that the Arts Council decided to increase funding in this area for 2017 from €3.1m in 2016 to €3.7m this year.

These initiatives demonstrate the overall commitment of Government to deliver for children as we work in finalising the Creative Children plan.