Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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61. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to hold a further round of the arts and culture capital scheme in 2018 to support local arts centres; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40715/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In February this year I announced details of more than €9 million in capital funding for existing dedicated arts and culture centres across the country under Stream 1 and 2 of the Arts and Culture Capital Scheme 2016-2018. This is the most significant investment in arts and cultural centres in a decade and is targeting investment at a range of different facilities, including arts centres, theatres, galleries and museums, as well as artists’ studios and creative spaces.

In August I announced further capital funding of almost €750,000 for 60 arts organisations around the country under Stream 3 of the Scheme for minor capital improvements and equipment upgrades.

The Arts and Culture Capital Scheme 2016-2018 is flexible to ensure that a diverse number of arts organisations can benefit. As a result of the latest round of funding, more than 120 organisations in total have benefitted from all 3 Streams of the Scheme.

As part of the Creative Ireland Programme, I want to enable creativity in every community. In that regard, this investment is an important way of supporting the arts in the regions and ensuring that people right across the country can access quality cultural facilities.

A full list of all successful projects under the Arts and Culture Capital Scheme 2016-2018 is available on my Department’s website at:

I hope to run a further round of the scheme in the future, subject to available resources.