Roderic O'Gorman
Question:184. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport to outline any plans to provide additional capital support to arts and cultural facilities. [16748/26]
View answerTuesday, 3 March 2026
Questions (184)
Written answers
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.
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 culture infrastructure by local authorities and the Arts Council. My Department focuses on providing capital grant funding to assist development and to maintain these arts and cultural facilities.
The Department has run a number of funding programmes under the Cultural Capital Scheme in recent years, most recently Stream E which provided grants of up to €50,000 for capital works and equipment. Another cultural capital funding scheme available from my Department is the €6 million pilot Artist Workspaces Scheme which was launched in June 2024. Under this scheme, local authorities outside Dublin City Council are invited to propose projects which enable them to provide additional artist workspaces in their regions on a sustainable basis and produce fit for purpose workspaces. Funding of up to €300,000 is available for densely populated local authority areas and €150,000 for other local authorities.
In line with the commitment in the Programme for Government, my Department was allocated €6m in Budget 2026 for a new programme of capital funding for arts and culture organisations across the country. This will see much needed capital supports for arts and culture organisations. My Department is in the process of designing the specifications of the scheme, including the setting of eligibility criteria.