Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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141. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will outline progress in meeting the recommendations of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce Report; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22114/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Night-time Economy is a hugely important sector, contributing to our economy and our cultural and creative sectors and it is important that we protect, support and sustain it.

The Report of the Night-Time Economy Taskforce, which I published in September 2021, contains 36 practical recommendations in the area of regulation, licensing, planning, transport, safety and increasing the diversity of activities as part of the night-time offering.  A robust implementation structure is now in place to ensure that the recommendations are implemented in full and also, importantly, that the document remains current and that new ideas and new developments are included as the work progresses.  Work is well underway to implement the actions in the Report and I was delighted to allocate €4m from my Department's budget this year towards the implementation of the actions within my own remit.

Some key areas of progress include my Department’s support for a new series of late night events across the country as part of Culture Night last year on foot of the Taskforce recommendation in this area. It is intended to build on this for this year’s Culture Night.   In addition to this my Department is engaging with the National Cultural Institutions on developing plans for both individual pilot late night events and for later openings this year.

The Report highlighted a number of challenges relating to planning and regulation for those operating in the Night-Time Economy.  To address these challenges a Night Time Economy Activation Workshop will take place next week, led by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage with support from my Department.   The outcome of the Workshop will be the development of best practice guidance to help Local Authorities (LAs) plan effectively for the Night-Time Economy.

Following on from a successful roll-out of vulnerability training last December which supports the recommendation on the issue of public safety, my Department supported a series of additional sessions in March and April, which saw over 380 venues across all sectors of the Night Time Economy registering their staff for vulnerability training.  This training has been developed with and is supported by the nightclub sector (Give Us The Night), the Vintners Associations, Restaurant Association of Ireland, the local authorities and also with the support of An Garda Síochána and the Department of Justice.

My Department is also finalising a new funding scheme for venues, which when rolled out should increase footfall in our cities and towns in the evening and night-time and also open more opportunities for local artists and performers by providing them with paying gigs and ready-made venues.

Significant progress has been made with our partners in the local authority to develop the pilot initiative establishing new "Night-Time Advisors" in six cities and towns to develop new Night-Time Economy opportunities.   

My Department is also supportive of the Department of Justice’s plans for legislative reform in the licensing area, which was also recommended by the NTE Taskforce and I understand that work is well advanced on this. 

In support of action 5, my Department is working with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to carry out a consultation process in June with the 16-24 age group to determine what actions are required to support Night-Time Economy initiatives for different age-groups.  The next scheduled phase of consultation/workshops will be an older demographic and my Department will work with the appropriate agencies to determine the best models of engagement for this age demographic.

I look forward to continued progress across all areas of this Report over the coming months.