I propose to take Questions Nos. 6, 7, 23, 32 and 56 together. I was delighted to have secured an allocation for a successor scheme to the basic income for the arts pilot as part of budget 2026. While the detail of the future scheme will need to be agreed by the Government, this is a major milestone for the arts in Ireland. I am particularly pleased that the research my Department conducted provided the Government with a clear evidence base upon which to make the decision. More than 17,000 submissions were received…

I welcome that people are so supportive of the scheme. There is a complication with regard to how the scheme runs forward because the pilot was due to end on 31 December, but out of savings in our Department's resources we are able to extend it to February to give an extra two months. At the same time, I mentioned the level of consultation we are doing in the Department. It is probably the largest consultative process we have ever done in the Department. It shows the range of opinions. Not everybody agrees on the m…

That is not the case.

I have not worked out that detail yet. As soon as I do, I will take it to the Government. With regard to journalists, we have journalistic schemes that are operated from my Department, including the court reporting scheme and the supporting democracy schemes. The Deputy might not be aware of them but we support them. I have not dismissed other Departments using basic income, but I am not the Minister for agriculture, as I have said three or four times at this stage. If the Minister for agriculture wants to bring in…

With regard to the Bill that was debated last week, Deputy Ó Snodaigh knows quite well my view with regard to comedy. That pertains to the Arts Council and Arts Council grants, which are a totally different thing. I have made my views clear with regard to the Arts Council and the funding of things like country music, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, comedy and other genres of arts which are currently not funded by the Arts Council. I am awaiting a report, which I am sure will probably be due any day now, from Professor…

The Government is committed to the rollout of high-speed broadband right across the country. The national broadband plan, NBP, is the Government's initiative to deliver high-speed broadband services to all premises in Ireland where the commercial telecom operators' reach will not extend. In addition to the work being progress by National Broadband Ireland right across the NBP intervention areas, progress is also being made by commercial operators in expanding their next generation networks throughout the State and …

I thank the Deputy. She is right in relation to the blue area in general. We continue to receive very high volumes of queries with regard to blue areas for high-speed broadband and poor speeds and services and things like that. Notwithstanding the fact that there are issues - if the Deputy wants to give me the particular details with regard to specific parts of Skerries and Balbriggan, I will have the Department look at them - I think people in general will acknowledge that some years ago, when I came into the Dáil…

There is a Dublin-specific issue we have to address. Fadó fadó when cable television came into people's houses - we did not have that luxury in the country, I do not know whether An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach did and Deputy Ó Snodaigh probably did - they had to break footpaths when they brought in cables and in many cases, left no ducting so there is a significant problem involving ducting in a lot of urban areas, particularly in Dublin, that we will have to address with local authorities. It will cost an awful lot of…

As outlined in the programme for Government, the Government believes that culture and the arts are essential to a well-rounded society providing opportunities for education, expression and community engagement. My Department is taking a number of steps to improve, increase and widen access to the arts. A network of cultural infrastructure exists throughout the country with the majority in the ownership of local authorities. Annual support, including programming and revenue supports, is provided to this arts and cul…

The Deputy is right. It is 2025. We should not have a situation where in some of our national cultural institutions, people with disabilities cannot go in the front door. That is the reality because of delays. Deputy Ó Snodaigh and I spoke about this a while ago regarding the rehabilitation of sensitive buildings and architecturally conserved areas. There are people with mobility problems who cannot go in the front door of our national cultural institutions. I find that intolerable. It really sticks in my craw that…

I will be bringing forward proposals to Government shortly regarding the new arts capital scheme. It will be along the same lines as the sports capital grant scheme. It is a small amount of money to start with. We are testing the waters in year one but I hope to grow it exponentially over the next couple of years. It will be local authority-dependent. They own most of the properties around the country. It will not be open to the national cultural institutions. To be honest, they have enough money, which they get di…

As outlined in the programme for Government, the Government believes that culture and the arts are essential to a well-rounded society providing opportunities for education, expression and community engagement. My Department is taking a number of steps to improve, increase and widen access to the arts. A network of cultural infrastructure exists throughout the country with the majority in the ownership of local authorities. My Department provides capital support for arts and culture infrastructure while annual supp…

As I said a while ago, I understand Dunamaise Arts Centre is due to bring forward an application. It was to bring this forward in September, I think, but it has been delayed for some reason. Once that application is brought forward, it can be assessed. The important thing in the wider scheme for these centres is we will have an arts capital scheme that is the first of its kind, as soon as we have eligibility and a process in place. That has to be approved by the Minister for public expenditure before it can be form…

The last point the Deputy made is the most important. All these arts centres will only be as good as the local community that supports them. No amount of schemes, interventions and grants will ever supplement what the local community can do by attending and supporting artists, whether touring or local. That is the most important issue. Whether they are in parish halls, purpose-built centres like the Dunamaise Arts Centre, hotels or wherever, the most important thing people can do to have a vibrant arts community is…

I had thought we were nearly finished but I thank the Deputy. A range of supports are provided for screen productions in Ireland, including regional productions. These are kept under ongoing review to ensure we remain an attractive location for inward investment and continue to develop our domestic industry. In 2024, Screen Ireland invested more than €6.5 million in productions, festivals, initiatives and activities that contributed to the nationwide development of the screen sector. This included €4 million awarde…

I thank all of the Deputies for raising this really important question. I have done a number of trade missions to north America with Screen Ireland and the film sector. It is my intention to do another one to Canada and the United States of America early in the spring because there is substantial potential here. That potential is driven by talent, infrastructure, our climate and the existing section 481 tax relief. Since I have become Minister, there have been increases to the scéal scheme uplift, which is for smal…

As I have previously outlined to other Deputies, the programme for Government contains this commitment because we believe culture and arts are essential to a well-rounded society and provide opportunities for education, expression and community engagement. A network of cultural infrastructure exists throughout the country, the majority of which is in the ownership of local authorities. Annual support, including programming and revenue, is provided to the arts and culture infrastructure by local authorities and the …

That is exactly what we are doing. We are starting with a small amount because we want to test the water and get an understanding of how the scheme will work. When sports capital was introduced fadó, fadó, it started at a very small level. When I was Minister of State in the Department the last time, in 2016, the amount available for sports capital was paltry compared to what is available from our Department now - north of €250 million. We need to start somewhere. This is a small scheme. If we are inundated with de…

I agree with both Deputies. Whether it is arts or sport, we will prioritise areas with growing and burgeoning populations but without facilities. I am going to be very critical of local authorities again. Local authorities have in many cases allowed houses to be built all over the place and done very well out of development levy contribution schemes. Where has the money gone? We have to be honest. In many cases, the Government is being asked to plug holes created by local authorities. They have built thousands of h…

Give it a few weeks and you will be back again.