Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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86. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to make departmental funding available for multicultural integration events to communities such as Kildare town, Newbridge and Athy which have a large multicultural society; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27576/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Taoiseach and I launched the Creative Ireland Programme 2017–2022 in December 2016 as the Government Legacy Programme for Ireland 2016 and as the main implementation vehicle for the priorities identified in Culture 2025/Éire Ildánach, the draft cultural policy which I published in July 2016.

As noted in my response to the Deputy on the 7 March last, 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. It focuses on boosting cultural provision and participation in communities and harnessing the goodwill and engagement generated by the 2016 commemorative programme.

Pillar Two of the Programme – Enabling creativity in every community– is being implemented primarily through our local authorities who, as the primary instruments of community engagement, have a particular capacity for engaging citizens through local programme delivery including cultural events.

Each local authority including Kildare has now established a Culture Team bringing together arts officers, librarians, heritage officers, museum curators, archivists and other relevant personnel led by a Director of Services, with a nominated person as 'Creative Ireland Coordinator'. This approach allows each local authority to decide on what events/projects to support and consider for inclusion in their Culture and Creativity Plans, to suit the needs of the communities in their own area.

A dedicated budget of €1m from the overall Creative Ireland Programme budget of €5m has been allocated to the local authorities towards the implementation of initiatives under Pillar Two including the publication of a Culture and Creativity Plan for each county. These plans were launched by the Taoiseach on the 25 May 2017 and are available online at . They include a series of projects that will utilise the funding I have provided as well as a list of promotional events occurring in each county throughout the year.

Additional support under Pillar Two will also be made available to the local authorities by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. I am confident that this funding, together with the Culture Teams being put in place, will go a long way to promoting cultural activity across the country including multicultural events.