Culture Ireland is a unit of my department with responsibility for the promotion of Irish arts internationally. In doing so, they work with international presenting partners and annually funded bodies to bring high quality Irish arts, across all artforms, to global audiences.
In 2026 Culture Ireland's allocation is €8.8m. The table below shows the impact of increases of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% on this figure:
|
Increase
|
5%
|
10%
|
15%
|
20%
|
|
|
€440,000
|
€880,000
|
€1.32m
|
€1.76m
|
The Arts Council is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. Under the Arts Act 2003, the Arts Council has primary responsibility for the development of the arts in Ireland and Budget 2026 has maintained the record funding of €140 million for the Arts Council from my Department. The table below shows the impact of increases of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% on this figure:
|
Increase
|
5%
|
10%
|
15%
|
20%
|
|
|
€7m
|
€14m
|
€21m
|
€28m
|
The Central Statistics Office have a Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator which can be used to "update" a sum of money and can be found at the following link; visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/cpicalculator. The latest CSO data is up to May 2026 and the percentage change from October 2025 (budget) to May 2026 is 2.3%. The table below shows the impact of this increase on both Culture Ireland and the Arts Council:
|
Agency
|
2.3% Increase
|
|
Culture Ireland
|
€202,400
|
|
The Arts Council
|
€3.22m
|
I have asked the Arts Council to make direct contact and provide the Deputy with further information in relation to the total additional expenditure which would be required for the Arts Council to meet the demand of 50% of applications and of all applications for funding by artists and arts organisations in 2025. Please contact my private office if you do not hear from the Council within the next ten working days.
