Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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26. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the Galway 2020 project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47305/18]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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43. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 21 of 21 June 2018 and 2811 of 24 July 2018, when the performance delivery agreement in relation to the contribution of €15 million to Galway 2020 will be published; the details of the agreement; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47422/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 26 and 43 together.

In December 2014 the Government decided that Ireland should exercise its right to nominate a European Capital of Culture for 2020 and committed in principle at that time to provide €15m to the selected project. Galway's designation as European Capital of Culture 2020, along with Rijeka, Croatia, is a great honour for Ireland and a wonderful opportunity to strengthen and promote our culture nationally and internationally.

The Government's support of €15m represents the largest single contribution to the overall cost of Galway 2020 as the European Capital of Culture. The Government's contribution is provided as part of a suite of co-funding arrangements to deliver the programme outlined by Galway 2020.

A performance delivery agreement for the provision of the €15m grant to be paid to Galway 2020 was drawn up by officials of my Department, in consultation with Galway 2020, and signed on 6 November last. The performance delivery agreement addresses the roles and responsibilities of the Department and Galway 2020 in the provision and expenditure of the grant, as well as the key deliverables and performance indicators attached to the drawdown of the grant, and monitoring and reporting arrangements.

As the Deputy is aware, the annex to the performance delivery agreement contains a list of projects under the Galway 2020 Programme allocated funding by my Department. These projects will be announced at a showcase event for Galway 2020 this evening and I intend to publish the full performance delivery agreement, together with this annex, on the Department's website, after the projects have been announced.

Galway 2020 is now moving into the delivery phase of the project. Patricia Philbin – the Project Manager for the bid phase of the project – took over as CEO last month, while the team also now includes cultural producers, with expertise across the art forms.

The showcase event to be hosted this evening, and to be attended by my colleague in the Department, Minister of State, Seán Kyne, will be also an opportunity for the public to hear about some of the key projects and events that will take place under the Galway 2020 Culture Programme, as well as find out about and become involved in the volunteer and partnership programmes for Galway 2020.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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27. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the reason for the delay in the publication of the final Culture 2025 policy document; when it will be published; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47404/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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In July 2016 my predecessor, Minister Humphreys, published the draft framework policy document Éire Ildánach/Culture 2025. This underwent a round of consultations, with submissions received from Government Departments, local authorities, and cultural bodies and stakeholders in the cultural sector, and was very useful in setting the scene for many of these bodies to develop their own cultural strategies. The draft framework policy was submitted to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs in July 2016, who published its 'Report on Culture 2025 – Éire Ildánach, Framework Policy to 2025' in July 2017.

My Department is now finalising the framework policy. In this regard, the Joint Oireachtas Committee made a number of very good suggestions including in relation to how the policy document should be reshaped. My Department has taken time to give careful consideration to these suggestions.

In addition, the Creative Ireland Programme, which was launched in December 2016, restated the key aims and values set out in the draft Culture 2025 document but took these a stage further in terms of setting out key deliverable actions both in year 1 and over a 5 year period. In effect, the Creative Ireland Programme has become the main implementation vehicle for many of the priorities identified in the Culture 2025. In this regard, the main emphasis of the Department during 2017 was to get the Creative Ireland Programme up and running. Since then my Department has been working to align the final Culture 2025 document with other concurrent policy documents, including the proposed new heritage plan for Ireland, Heritage Ireland 2030, the public consultation on which I launched at the start of this month.

It is important however, notwithstanding the significant achievements under the Creative Ireland Programme, that Culture 2025 will remain as a broad overarching policy document for culture setting out the strategic aims of Government for future years. My intention is therefore to complete this work for final signoff very shortly and to bring Culture 2025 to Government for approval and subsequent publication.