Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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286. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the funding available to local authorities for the national day of commemoration in July 2021. [29067/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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My role as Minister with responsibility for leading the coordination of the Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023 Programme is to help ensure that the events of this important and formative period in our history and related themes, are meaningfully, proportionately and sensitively remembered.

Throughout the Decade of Centenaries, our local authorities have encouraged and supported authentic historical exploration and respectful reflection about the multiple identities, traditions and perspectives that are part of the overall Irish historical experience.

  On 16 December 2020, I announced funding of €1.75 million for local authorities in 2021, to support their leading role in developing community-led commemorative activities, for the final phase of the Decade of Centenaries Programme.  This amounts to €50,000 for each local authority and an additional fund is also available to support local authorities who have further requirements in relation to specific community-led centenary events, or larger projects.  My Department has developed comprehensive guidance for the allocation of funding to assist local authorities, however, we do not direct them with regard to the allocation of funding for specific events.

  The annual National Day of Commemoration is held on the Sunday closest to the 11th July, the date on which, in 1921, the Anglo-Irish Truce was agreed. The event normally takes place in either the Royal Hospital Kilmainham or the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin and is led by An Taoiseach. In addition a number of regional commemoration ceremonies are held on the same day, in Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford.  If any local authority wishes to include initiatives to support or mark the national day of commemoration this year or any other key milestone in the Decade of Centenaries Programme, they may do so from their allocation or indeed funding from other sources they may have access to.