Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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256. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if her Department will support the Arts Council to move to a longer-term funding model for smaller arts organisations as recently discussed in the media. [40761/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the Deputy may be referring to the new funding framework (Making Great Art Work Funding Framework) as recently announced by the Arts Council.

The strategic context for the Arts Council’s support of arts participation and all other artforms and areas of arts practice is set out in Making Great Art Work: Arts Council Strategy (2016 –2025).  A key commitment in the Council's Three-Year Plan 2017–2019 was to review its funding programmes, schemes and initiatives under its Making Great Art Work priorities.  Such a review would assist the Council in how it invests in art and arts practice in a more effective way.  It would also help streamline the supports available to artists and to arts organisations, and simplify and clarify the application, assessment and decision-making processes operated by the Council.  The Making Great Art Work Funding Framework was the outcome of this review. Further details of the funding framework can be accessed on the Arts Council's website at the following link .

I will continue to support the Arts Council, as set out in the Programme for a Partnership Government, which contains a commitment to work to progressively increase funding to the arts, including the Arts Council and the Irish Film Board, as the economy continues to improve. To this effect in Budget 2017, I secured significant additional funding for the Arts Council.  The increase in the Arts Council's allocation in 2017 is €5 million, or 8%. This will assist the Council greatly in implementing its 10-year strategy Making Great Art Work (2016-2025) including under its new funding framework.