Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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180. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of students who will participate in the bringing live arts to students and teachers programme in the 2024-2025 academic year. [38618/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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A total of 425 BLAST residencies were awarded for the 2024-2025 school year. While the number of students participating per school is not collected routinely, it can be estimated from the data gathered from a selection of schools during evaluation that more than 13,500 students are participating in the programme in the current school year.

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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181. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of expanding the bringing live arts to students and teachers programme to benefit ten more schools. [38620/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Bringing Live Arts to Students and Teachers Programme, known as BLAST, aims to provide pupils in schools all over the country, time and the space to work with a professional artist/creative practitioner on imaginative, creative and fun projects.

BLAST is a key Department of Education initiative of the Creative Youth Plan 2023-2027 which aims to foster creativity in schools focus and to provide young people with opportunities to learn and develop the key skills and competencies of collaboration, critical thinking, problem-solving, and innovation.

BLAST residencies are designed and developed between the artist/creative practitioner, teacher, students and the school community under the coordination of the 21 full-time Education Support Centres Ireland (ESCI) network.

Schools and YouthReach centres apply for a BLAST Residency via a centralised online application link which will be processed by their local full-time ESC. The programme is nationally coordinated by the National Arts in Education office, Tralee Education Support Centre. BLAST applications are assessed by the local ESC. Applications will be assessed and scored against the following criteria: Previous ESCI creative youth application success, Benefits to teaching and learning, Capacity and commitment, Children and young peoples' participation in decision making and Supporting access to creativity.

Creative practitioners on the BLAST Register of Artists and Creative Practitioners have been trained and have engaged in school residencies under the Teacher-Artist Partnership+ (TAP+) professional development initiative which is approved and led by the Department of Education. In March of this year, I was delighted to confirm that. with the funding available, 425 schools were successful in their application to participate in the BLAST programme 2024/2025.

An artist's fee of €1,100 is paid per school residency, and administration costs also arise in managing, delivering and overseeing the BLAST programme. Accordingly, it is estimated that a cost of €12,000 would be required to expand the BLAST programme to benefit 10 additional schools above the 425 successful applications selected this year, including an indicative amount for administration costs.