Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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243. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her plans to fund application assistance for Creative Europe applications for large scale projects in view of the underperformance of Irish applications in funding rounds to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43372/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I wish to advise the Deputy that in 2017 there was in fact a positive outcome for Irish applicants from the Co-operation Projects Strand of the Creative Europe Culture Sub-Programme.

In 2017 a total of 36 applications were made involving Irish organisations (2 as coordinators and 34 as partners) with a success rate in 2017 of 24%, well above the EU average of 16% and the UK average of 20%.

The overall direct grant allocation to Irish projects for the 2017 round of funding was just under €624k, which brings the total amount allocated to Ireland since the start of the Creative Europe Culture Sub-Programme to just under €2.1 million.

The Culture and Media Creative Desks, supported by the Arts Council, Irish Film Board, as well as through liaison with my Department, provide expertise and assistance for all applications being submitted to the Creative Europe Programme to optimise their potential for success.

In order to support  and assist Irish arts organisations who intend to apply under the Creative Europe Culture Sub-Programme, the Arts Council offers the Creative Europe (Culture Sub-Programme) Travel Award. This award is open to arts organisations developing proposals under the Creative Europe Culture Sub-Programme, and is intended to cover some of the costs associated with face-to-face meetings and to build connections with partner organisations in Europe.

In 2016, the Arts Council introduced a Co-funding Awardwhich is open to Irish arts organisations which have been successful under the co-operation projects strand (both large and small scale) of the Creative Europe Culture Sub-Programme. This award assists Irish arts organisations in raising the required match funding for the Irish artistic costs associated with their project.

Full support is offered through these means to incentivise and facilitate as wide a participation as possible in the Creative Europe Programme 2014-2020 by Irish arts organisations and to build capacity within the sector in the longer term to develop suitable projects for European funding.