Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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113. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide updated guidelines for private music and drama teachers in anticipation of reopening; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25170/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Arts Council has worked with the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to develop guidance for children and young people’s arts and cultural activities. The guidance was recently published on the Arts Council’s website

This guidance will continue to be updated in line with any relevant changes to public health measures in the coming months. This guidance was reviewed by the Department’s external Health and Safety advisors to ensure compliance with:

- The Government’s Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021 – The Path Ahead;

- The Government’s Stay Safe Guidelines; and

- The Government’s Work Safely Protocols.

The guidelines will assist those engaging in arts and cultural activities with children to provide a safe and controlled environment which will mitigate against the risk of spreading COVID-19. This guidance is a living document, which means that as government restrictions and public-health guidelines evolve, this document will also evolve to reflect new government advice and changes to protocols as they emerge. The Arts Council’s Young People, Children and Educationguidance may be used for organised cultural activities for children and young people, including early-childhood arts activities and arts training and education services that are delivered outside of early learning-and-care, formal education and youth-work contexts.

The Guidance is available the following link ;

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Music and drama classes are included with organised indoor and outdoor events. The Path AheadFramework sets out when it is considered that organised indoor or outdoor events can take place. From 10 May 2021 organised outdoor gatherings with a maximum attendance of 15 people can take place. In all these cases robust protocols and protective measures, including appropriate supervision and capacity limits, should be in place.

The Government’s COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery 2021 - The Path Aheadplan sets out the Government’s objectives for the full recovery of social life, public services and the economy. The government has decided to move ahead with this The Path Ahead plan. We are now in the early stages of the Recovery phase of the pandemic. The decision is based on advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), that a cautious and gradual phased reopening over May and June, with an emphasis on outdoor activity and a moderate increase in social contact, can be considered low to medium risk. NPHET has advised that there is scope to ease a range of public health measures in this manner with sufficient time between any easing of measures to assess the impact. This allows us to continue through the Recovery phase, focusing on what is safest and generates the most benefit and with a focus on outdoors activities – both social and economic.