Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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197. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the amount the Hunger Museum tour of Ireland cost the State. [35769/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Qunnipiac University has been a recognized leader in the study and remembrance of the Famine and has a strong record of academic excellence and artistic innovation in this area. In 2018, Qunnipiac University brought its exhibition entitled, Coming Home: Art and the Great Hungerto Dublin Castle from March 2018 to mid-June 2018, the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen from late July 2018 through October 2018 and subsequently to Derry in January 2019.

I am advised that the organisers estimated the overall cost of the Exhibition and related programme was in the order of $800,000, some 75% of which was to be raised from private and public sources. While my Department had no involvement in the organisation of this project the organisers were provided with significant Government support as set out below.

In October 2017 the Minister of State for Diaspora Affairs Ciaran Cannon T.D. announced funding of $100,000 for this exhibition to be funded from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s diaspora affairs budget.

I am further advised that the Office of Public Works provided material support to the project by their hosting of the Exhibition in the Coach House in Dublin Castle at no charge to the organisers which, while not involving any loss of income to OPW, represented a significant saving for the organisers of the Exhibition.

In addition to the above my Department provided €10,000 to support related activities including a series of lectures and family activities, and a panel presentation to explore aspects of the Great Hunger in Ireland and its diaspora.