Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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56. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the role, if any, that her Department has played in the integration of Ukrainian refugees into communities; if her Department and any agencies under its remit have had an involvement at local or national level in the response; the further steps that they intend on taking to ensure that services are provided to assist in this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50428/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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As I recently outlined to Government, my Department and the Agencies under my Department’s remit continue to have an ongoing positive role in the integration of the Ukrainian Community into our Communities across the various Sectors of my Department.

I would like to outline some examples of the type of integration measures and events my Department, and the Agencies under my remit, are engaged in for each Sector, outlined below:

Tourism

While not considered suitable for medium to longer term accommodation needs of families, hotel accommodation has been, and continues to be an important temporary part of the response to the arrival of citizens from Ukraine. Many citizens from Ukraine have also taken up employment opportunities in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Culture

Arising from meetings that I and senior officials in my Department have had with the Minister for Culture and Information Policy, Ukraine, as well as two Ukrainian parliamentarians, my officials are examining a number of targeted measures to support Ukraine. These include:

- Possible future engagement on and advice from my Department and relevant agencies on the establishment of public place(s) of memory in Ukraine, drawing on Ireland’s recent experience of managing sensitive commemorations;

- Consideration of possible cooperation projects, for example, between Dublin and Lviv UNESCO Cities of Literature and initiatives such as town twinning between Irish and Ukrainian towns;

- Support for the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage in cooperation with international organisations, notably UNESCO.

There are also numerous events to support and welcome the Ukrainian Community including:

- The National Museum of Ireland - Country Life – Turlough hosted an event for Culture Night calledSharing Harvest Traditions.

- The Crawford Art Gallery has recently organised a number of tours specifically for the Ukrainian community with another one planned for 21 October, as part of the Meat and Potatoes exhibition.

- The NCH also presented the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra who played a historic concert at the Concert Hall in August this year. Assembled by New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera, the orchestra included recent refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras, and some of the top musicians from Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and elsewhere in Ukraine.

- The National Gallery has had several Ukrainian families taking part in its free family workshops. These workshops are a way to engage with people who are new to Ireland, to make them feel welcome and to give them a sense of ownership of the collection and building. The Gallery is also providing free access to all refugees to its paid exhibition programme. For the exhibition ‘Giacometti: From Life’ (from 09 April 2022 – 4 September 2022), 78 refugees availed of free tickets.

- The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) held a number events during its Summer School in June including a Keynote talk by Jessica Zychowicz, Director of the Fulbright programme in Ukraine. IMMA also hosted an event with a group of Ukrainian artists: Art Practice in times of War – Meeting with Visual Artists from Ukraine.

The Arts Council, is also playing a key role in supporting young Ukrainians arriving in Ireland. It is expanding its access costs protocol to ensure schools are aware they can apply for additional funding to engage translation, or other access services needed, to meet their needs and that of other migrant children.

The Arts Council and Screen Ireland, are making their grant and bursary schemes available to people arriving from Ukraine.

My Department’s Creative Ireland programme is also supporting events which are free of charge for children and young people and are now facilitating the full participation of young Ukrainians in a variety of ways. Many of these events were part of the Cruinniú na nÓg programme of activities on 11th June - Ireland’s annual national day of free creativity for children and young people under 18.

A number of events have also been organised in the context of the European Commission’s ongoing support for artists and cultural workers in Ukraine via the Creative Europe Programme and form part of the 2022 work programme of the Creative Europe Desk Ireland – Culture office. These include:

- A series of Ukrainian cultural events for the Culture Office in November in the Museum of Literature Ireland; and

- The Lighthouse Cinema and the Pálás in Galway are featuring Ukrainian composers, films and writers.

The Deputy may also wish to note that I have engaged with my counterparts at EU level on a number of occasions on this matter and expressed my strong support for the adaptation of the relevant EU programmes to make them accessible to Ukrainian artists and media operators, including Creative Europe, the flagship EU funding programme to support the arts, culture and audiovisual sectors in Member States and associate countries.

I am also providing supports, via UNESCO, to assist in the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage.

Irish Language & the Gaeltacht

The special linguistic issues associated with relocating refugees from Ukraine to Gaeltacht areas both for Ukrainians and the Gaeltacht Communities alike, is being aided by my Department through the different schemes and programmes operating in the Gaeltacht.

My Department in conjunction with Údarás na Gaeltachta is continuing to avail of opportunities in order to help acclimatise Ukrainian citizens to their surroundings from a linguistic perspective.

Sport

In relation to sport, the National Governing Bodies are doing all that they can to provide assistance with emergency accommodation for Ukrainian refugees. In addition, Sport Ireland has made available on a temporary basis, facilities at the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown to provide emergency accommodation for refugees other than those from Ukraine, as a contribution to the overall temporary accommodation needs of those fleeing conflict.

More generally, the Irish sporting community is continuing to play an important role in welcoming people from Ukraine into their new communities in Ireland.

Broadcasting & Media

As part of the sixth sanctions package, which came into legal effect from 4th June 2022, the 1st March measures against media service providers (to prohibit the broadcast of any content by Russia Today, its regional subsidiaries and Sputnik throughout the European Union) will be subject to two amendments:

- The sixth sanctions package extends the reach of the existing sanctions on sanctioned media services to prohibit the advertising of products or services in any content produced or broadcast by sanctioned media services;

- The sixth sanctions package adds the following providers to the list of sanctioned media service providers:

- Rossiya RTR / RTR Planeta;

- Rossiya 24 / Russia 24;

- TV Centre International.

Russia Today is not been carried by any television provider in Ireland. The major social media companies – Google, Meta, Twitter, and Tiktok - have removed content from Russia Today and Sputnik from their services within the European Union in compliance with the restrictive measures.

Further information may be found on my Department’s website at www.gov.ie/en/organisation/department-of-tourism-culture-arts-gaeltacht-sport-and-media/#.