Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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336. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if grants will be provided for chambers of commerce and business associations to promote and advertise their areas and summer arts events; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25568/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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My Department operates an annual fund for Small Scale Local Festivals and Summer Schools Scheme to promote local summer cultural events and which is open to application by commerce chambers, business associations and other community groups. The maximum allocation available to projects under this Scheme is €5,000.

In 2019 a total of €111,000 was allocated to 50 projects under this Scheme.  There was a significantly reduced demand for this Scheme in 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, but 14 projects were awarded a total of €54,700 for online and COVID-compliant cultural events.

Applications under the scheme for 2021 closed on 23rd April 2021. These applications are now being assessed and successful applicants will be notified shortly.

It is currently envisaged that this funding scheme will run again in 2022 and will launch in the first quarter of the year. Full details of this allocations under previous years are available on my Department's website at .

The Arts Council offers a wide range of financial supports across art forms and arts practices, including festivals. The Arts Council sees festivals as key producers and presenters of the arts and are critical to engaging large and diverse audiences.

The Arts Council also provides financial support to a number of single art form festivals (e.g. theatre, dance, film) and such festivals are supported within the policy context of those art forms. The Council also supports many multidisciplinary arts festivals, meaning those festivals that programme across different art forms, including literature, music, street arts, theatre, visual arts and different areas of arts practice.

Their Festivals Investment Scheme, for example, is specifically designed to offer support to local/voluntary organisations to develop arts festivals. The larger festivals regularly supported by the Council include the Wexford Festival Opera and the Galway Arts Festival.

Fáilte Ireland supports local authorities in the development of tourism in their area including funding for capital investment, festivals and events.

While Fáilte Ireland does support the promotion of many cultural events, including the Dublin Theatre Festival and the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, the promotion of cultural events for commercial purposes is primarily a matter for the organisers and promoters of the activities in question and is not a focus for arts funding.

As a joint initiative, the Arts Council and Fáilte Ireland are developing guidance for the safe presentation of festivals and live events. This document is currently at the consultation stage and is due to be published in the coming weeks.