Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1211. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the budget allocation for the Creative Ireland programme in each of the years 2017, 2018 and 2019; and the budget allocation for same in 2020. [45001/19]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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As the Creative Ireland Programme is a whole-of-Government policy initiative, a number of departments and agencies provide financial support to activities that are encompassed by different pillars of the Programme. The work of the Creative Ireland Programme office is focused on Creative Youth, Creative Communities, the National Creativity Fund, and other supporting elements of the programme, and my Department provides an annual allocation to the Programme office to support these activities.

In 2017, my Department allocated a budget of €5 million directly to the Creative Ireland Programme office to establish and deliver a series of key objectives in its first year. A full expenditure breakdown of that 2017 budget allocation is available on .

A budget of €5.3 million was provided directly to the Programme office by my Department in 2018 to drive its implementation at local level and fund specific projects, actions and priorities which further the wider aims of the Programme. As with the 2017 budget, a full breakdown of expenditure is available at the above website.

In 2019, my Department allocated a sum of €7.15 million to the Programme office. A full breakdown of this 2019 budget expenditure will be published online early in 2020.

The matter of funding allocations to the Programme office for 2020 will be examined in the context of the revised estimates published in December and have yet to be finalised.