Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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970. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which EU grant aid has been sought, remains available or is likely to become available to support various community festivals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27889/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Creative Europe 2014 - 2020 is the European Union’s funding programme to support the audiovisual, cultural and creative sectors. It consists of MEDIA and CULTURE sub-programmes as well as a Cross-sectoral strand. The Creative Europe - Culture sub-programme has granted over €13 million in project funding to projects with Irish partners in its first three years. The majority of the funding available under the Culture sub-programme is via the co-operation projects strand.

To date, at the mid-way point of the Programme, under the co-operation projects strand there have been four Irish festivals involved as partners in projects with a total project grant allocation of just under €3 million:

- Babóro Galway International Children’s Festival (Small Size, Performing Arts for Early Years)

- Photo Ireland Festival Ltd (Flaneur – New Urban Narratives)

- First Fortnight Ltd (Networking European Festivals for Mental Life Enhacement)

- Cúirt – Galway Arts Centre (Sharing the Wor(l)D)

The Culture sub-programme also funds EU networks and platforms via operating grants for the lead organisations. Below is a summary of Irish festivals which are members of Creative Europe supported platforms and networks:

- Dublin Dance Festivalis a member of the Aerowaves Platform

- Galway Early Music Festivalis a member of the European Early Music Network,

Galway Film Fleadh has received €162,750 for the period 2014 - 2016 under the Access to Markets support scheme for the Galway Film Fair – the industry market which runs parallel to the Festival.

A complete list of funding results is published on the Education, Audio-Visual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) website: .