Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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254. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the actions she will take in the coming year to increase children's access to music, art and drama; and the funding she will dedicate to same. [40759/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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TheCreative Ireland Programme, which I launched in December 2016, 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.  The plan will be a primary driver of actions in this area in 2018.

I am pleased to say that continuing professional development through teacher - artist partnerships is ongoing and in July 2017 there was a significant increase in the number of courses taking place across twenty-one Education Centres throughout the country.

In addition, the Arts Council commissioned report Arts and Cultural Participation among Children and Young People: Insights from the Growing Up in Ireland Study, which was published in September 2016, concluded that arts and cultural participation leads to a range of positive outcomes for children, both in terms of their cognitive development and their wellbeing. This study found that schools are important arenas for access to arts/culture and school emphasis on culture has a positive impact on student engagement in these activities.

This year the Arts Council increased funding in this area from €3.1 million in 2016 to €3.7 million in 2017 on foot of the significant increase of support of €5 million which I secured for the Arts Council as part of Budget 2017. I also provided an additional €70,000 to the Arts Council to assist in the expansion of the Teacher Artist Partnership this year.

In terms of next steps, my Department is working closely with the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Arts Council in preparing the Creative Children plan to deliver the objectives of Pillar 1 of the Creative Ireland Programme. This plan will be launched later in the year.