Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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307. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which her Department continues to provide funding for the arts at local and community level, directly or indirectly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20502/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Creative Ireland Programme was launched in December 2017 as the Government's Legacy Programme arising out of the Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme and as the main implementation vehicle for the priorities identified in Culture 2025/Éire Ildánach.

The Creative Ireland Programme is a high level, high ambition, 5-year initiative, from 2017 to 2022 which aims to place creativity at the centre of public policy. The programme is being led by my Department in partnership with other Government Departments and Agencies, local authorities, the third level sector, arts and culture organisations (including the National Cultural Institutions) and relevant NGOs.

Under Pillar II of the Programme, each of the 31 local authorities has established a Culture Team and in 2017 published and implemented local Culture and Creativity Plans which were supported by an allocation of €2m (€1m from my Department and €1m from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government). In total, these plans listed over 750 local cultural projects, events and initiatives taking place nationwide last year which gave us a snapshot of the rich cultural activity taking place in each country.

Each local authority is now in the process of drawing up more detailed five-year Strategic Creativity Plans which will be published later this year. These strategies will be accompanied by an Activity Plan outlining initiatives being supported by the local authorities in their respective areas. The implementation of these Activity plans will be supported by a sum of €3m (€2m from my own Department and €1m from the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government). Each local authority will therefore receive approximately €96,000 this year under the Creative Ireland Programme. The local authorities have full discretion in terms of what activities they support.

The overall aim of these plans will be to mainstream and promote culture and creativity in the life of the nation so that individually and collectively, we can realise our full creative potential with commensurate economic benefits.