Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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330. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of applications for funding received by the Arts Council in 2020; the number of those applications that were approved for funding; the number of those applications that were rejected for funding; and the details of same. [12502/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Primary responsibility for promoting practice of the arts rests with the Arts Council under the Arts Act 2003. It should be noted that under the Arts Act 2003, the Arts Council is statutorily independent in its funding decisions.

I understand that in 2020, the Council received more than 6,500 applications. This compares with just 3,500 in the previous year. Of the 6,500 2020 applications, 529 were deemed ineligible and 2,743 were not approved. A total of 3,241 applications were approved, awarded funding and processed for payment. It should be noted that these figures are draft figures and will be finalised in the context of the Arts Council’s financial statement currently in preparation.

The Arts Council operates numerous funding schemes every year and these are all advertised on its website. The Council publishes details of its funding decisions on its website at the following link .

Funding decisions are also routinely published in the Arts Council newsletter, and historical decisions are recorded in the Arts Council's annual reports which are available online in the publications section.