Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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99. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if her Department has developed initiatives to support more opportunities for older people to develop cultural activities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8395/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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My Department and the public bodies under its aegis provide wide-ranging support for older people to develop cultural activities.

The all-of government Creative Ireland Programme led by my Department seeks to enable each citizen to realise their full creative potential. Through the Programme, one of my responses to the pandemic was to initiate a Creativity in Older Age scheme. Between 2020 and 2022, I have provided over €2.9 million through that scheme to support positive ageing through engagement with creative initiatives. This has seen for example delivery of approximately 1,300 concerts directly into residential care settings nationwide since 2020.

Through the Programme’s Creative Communitiespillar, local authorities have been instrumental in developing partnerships to target further support for older people to develop cultural activities. From radio, podcasting, lace-making, cultural companionship, and dance, the work to support our older communities continues.

The National Cultural Institutions also encourage greater participation of older people in a variety of cultural activities, within the institutions themselves and in community settings. These range from activities of general interest to older adults (such as the National Concert Hall’s Blow the Dust Orchestrafor older and returning musicians, or tours for senior groups) to more specialist programmes targeting a particular cohort of older people such as those living with dementia (for example, dementia-friendly concerts and tours).

Age and Opportunityfunded by the Arts Council is the leading national development organisation working with a budget of €237,000 to enable the best possible quality of life for us all as we age. They also coordinate the Bealtaine Festival and several of our National Cultural Institutions are active participants. Arts Council cross-artform supports include bursaries, travel and training awards as well as specific schemes such as the Artist in the Communityscheme managed by Create,with a budget of €375,000. Other Arts Council funding is aimed at the co-ordination of high-quality arts programmes directly targeting older people as participants and audiences.

This multi-faceted approach to providing cultural opportunities for older people is important and through Creative Ireland, my Department has commissioned specific research on this topic by The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin since 2020. I know from that research that older adults who participate in creative activities enjoyed a higher quality of life and were less likely to be lonely, depressed and stressed than their contemporaries who did not. Developing the evidence base will be important as my Department considers policies and initiatives in relation to older people into the future.