Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I am conscious of the contribution that festivals make to the artistic and cultural life of local communities and how they make destinations more attractive to domestic and international tourists. I recognise also the challenges involved in arranging festivals, often involving significant financial outlay and commitments and a great deal of voluntary activity. Accordingly, my Department and the relevant agencies under its aegis support the staging of festivals.

In that regard, my Department runs a Small Scale Local Festivals and Summer Schools Scheme annually. The Scheme is designed to support local cultural festivals and summer schools which are not in receipt of funding support from the Government and other State Agencies. The 2023 Festivals and Summer School scheme was open for applications on the Department’s website until 9 June. The applications received are in final stage of assessment. Under this scheme in 2022 I allocated over €116,000 to 33 festivals across the country which was an increase of almost a third on the previous year's funding.

Applications are marked on the following criteria:

• Extent to which the projects meets the objectives of the scheme

• Realistic in terms of scale, costs, assistance sought and timeframe for delivery

• Demonstrate capacity to deliver project• Level of own or supporting contribution (non-state) towards the project

Terms and conditions of the scheme are available on my Departments website at www.gov.ie/en/publication/89595-small-scale-local-festivals-and-summer-schools/.

The Arts Council also provides financial support to a range of festivals, large and small, both single art form and multidisciplinary arts festivals. Strategic Funding supports organisations which are critical to the national arts infrastructure while the Festivals Investment Scheme is specifically designed to offer support to local/voluntary organisations to develop arts festivals.

As part of their Strategically Funded Festivals, Fáilte Ireland supports a diverse selection of larger festivals and events throughout the country. The Regional Festival Scheme, which they also support, is available to local community festivals and is administered by the Local Authorities. Each Local Authority manages their own application and grant process.

I do not propose to amend the structures for support of festivals but I envisage that, having regard to their scale and content, proposals for new festivals would be brought forward through these channels.