Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

108. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason for the decision to allocate €0.9 million of the Creative Ireland Programme budget to initiatives under the heading, citizen engagement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3074/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As part of the 2017 Creative Ireland Programme my Department undertook a comprehensive citizen engagement programme to:

- Showcase the range and depth of Ireland's cultural and creative offering;

- Encourage participation in arts and creative activities as a means of individual, collective and societal wellbeing, and;

- Build awareness of the Creative Ireland Programme, particularly in its first year. 

The vision of the Creative Ireland Programme is that every person in Ireland should have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential.  This represents a new approach to creativity and cultural policy and therefore required a substantial and sustained communications programme in 2017.  A combination of approaches and platforms were used to maximise impact, taking account of the diversity of the target audiences.

The development of the citizen engagement programme was very much informed by the positive experience of previous programmes particularly the approach taken in the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. In addition, statistics relating to readership of national and regional newspapers, listenership to local radio and increased use of social media, particularly by younger people, all informed the choices made. The Programme was also designed to have as wide a reach as possible, including in rural areas.

A full expenditure breakdown of the €0.937m is provided on my Department's Creative Ireland Programme website: .