Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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221. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the number of schools that remain without access to Creative Schools, and a timeline for the expansion of same to all schools. [32173/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Creative Youth Plan was published by the Government in December 2017 as one of the five pillars of the Creative Ireland Programme 2017-2022. The Plan sets out a number of measures designed to enable the creative potential of every young person, both within the formal education system and in informal or community settings.

Commenced in 2018, Creative Schools is one of the flagship initiatives of the Creative Youth Plan and supports schools and Youthreach centres to put the arts and creativity at the heart of children’s and young people’s lives. It is led by the Arts Council in partnership with the Department of Education and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

The Creative Schools initiative supports schools over 2 years to develop and implement a bespoke Creative Schools Plan, with the assistance of a Creative Associate in addition to a grant of €4,000 in total to implement their plan. A national spread of primary, post-primary, special, DEIS, Irish language medium schools, and Youthreach centres are represented in the initiative.

Access to the Creative Schools initiative is open to all Department of Education-recognised primary and post-primary schools and Youthreach centres.  Currently schools cannot re-enter the initiative once they have participated, thereby encouraging the inclusion of new schools each year.

In the four rounds from 2018 to 2021, a total number of 1,168 schools have applied to participate in Creative Schools with over 650 schools invited to participate. 2021 saw an expansion in the number of new schools participating compared to 2020. There are currently 350 schools participating in the initiative, and applications for the fifth round commencing in September 2022 closed on the 16th June 2022 and are currently being assessed.

This year will see the initiative expand to work with Oberstown Children Detention Campus School, Ballydowd High Support Special School, Crannóg Nua Special School and St Canice’s Special School. These schools have been invited to take part in the initiative and will receive increased Creative Associate time and funding with a total award of €8,000 over two years.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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222. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide details of any meetings that have taken place between her Department and the Department of Education to secure the future of Creative Schools since June 2020. [32174/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Creative Youth Plan was published by the Government in December 2017 as one of the five pillars of the Creative Ireland Programme 2017-2022. The Plan sets out a number of measures designed to enable the creative potential of every young person, both within the formal education system and in informal or community settings. Details on the many creative programmes for children and young people supported by Creative Youth are available from the Creative Ireland Programme website.

Implementation of the Creative Youth Plan is led by my Department in partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Arts Council, facilitated through an Inter-departmental Creative Youth Working Group. The Working Group has met 13 times since June 2020 to discuss all matters pertaining to the Creative Youth Plan.

Commenced in September 2018, Creative Schools is one of the flagship in-school initiatives of the Creative Youth Plan. Creative Schools supports schools over 2 years to develop and implement a bespoke Creative Schools Plan, with the assistance of a Creative Associate in addition to a grant of €4,000 in total over the two years. To date more than 650 schools were invited to participate in four rounds of the initiative. Applications for the fifth round of Creative Schools closed on the 16th June 2022 and successful schools will enter the programme in September 2022 until 2024.

The Inter-departmental Creative Youth Working Group is currently working to develop a new Creative Youth Plan for the period 2023-2027. With the addition of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the Working Group is engaging regularly to progress this work incorporating wide-ranging consultations with key sectoral organisations and representative bodies including teachers and school boards, as well as a consultation with children and youth facilitated by Hub na nÓg. The Working Group will consider the findings of these consultations alongside an evaluation of the Creative Schools initiative that is also currently underway as it seeks to finalise a new 5-year Creative Youth Plan during 2022.