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For Oral Answer on : 19/09/2024
Question Number(s): 20 Question Reference(s): 36995/24
Department: Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Asked by: David Stanton T.D.
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QUESTION
To ask the Minister for Tourism; Culture; Arts; Gaeltacht; Sport and Media how Ireland compares with other EU Member States with respect to the percentage of GDP expended on the arts; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
REPLY
Arriving at meaningful comparisons for international expenditure is challenging for a number of reasons. As has been acknowledged by my colleague the Minister for Finance, and as is generally acknowledged, Ireland is one of the most globally-integrated economies in the world. With a large foreign owned footprint, interpreting conventional measures of economic activity such as Gross Domestic Product – or GDP – is especially challenging in an Irish context.
There are also limited robust methodologies for international comparisons of Government expenditure on arts and culture. Eurostat as the statistical office of the European Union collects data on general government expenditure by economic function using the internationally accepted Classification of the Functions of Government system. Public functions are divided into ten classes that are further broken down into subclasses, one of which is Cultural Services. Another subclass is Broadcasting and Publishing Services.
This classification system, measures and compares public funding of the state including that of local government as well as investments such as buildings, maintenance and repair.
Eurostat publishes new figures once a year in the Spring for the penultimate complete calendar year. The 2022 figures were published on 22 February 2024 and show that Ireland’s expenditure on Cultural Services stood at €897 million in 2022. This was equivalent to 0.2% of GDP and compares to the EU average of 0.5% of GDP.
While the €897 million spent on Cultural Services accounts for 0.2% of Ireland’s GDP in 2022, a more relevant metric provided by Eurostat and published at the same time is the percentage of public expenditure that goes to Cultural Services. In this case, the €897 million accounts for 0.8% of total General Government Expenditure and compares to the EU average of 0.9% in 2022.
The expenditure figure for Ireland on Broadcasting & Publishing Services was €720 million in 2022. This was equivalent to 0.1% of GDP which was the same as the EU average. Meanwhile the percentage of public expenditure that goes to Broadcasting & Publishing Services was 0.7% of total General Government Expenditure in 2022. The equivalent EU average was 0.4% in the same year.
Notwithstanding the widely acknowledged and commonly understood challenges in making meaningful international comparisons of public expenditure in respect of Ireland based on Gross Domestic Product, I am satisfied that there has been considerable progress in recent years in growth in public funding of arts and culture in Ireland. Relative to Budget 2020, Budget 2024 saw an increase of over 90% in funding for the Arts and Culture Division of my Department. This included record allocations for the Arts Council of Ireland, Fís Éireann, Culture Ireland and continued funding of the three year €105m Basic Income for the Arts research programme as well as significant increases in funding for our National Cultural Institutions (or NCIs).
In terms of capital expenditure, my Department, in partnership with the Office of Public Works, is engaged in a programme of significant investment in our NCIs as well as supporting local authorities in addressing demand for artist workspaces. There was also a programme of investment in the Decade of Centenaries Programme, the renewal and continued implementation of the Creative Ireland programme and new initiatives in areas such as Night Time Economy. The benefit of this expenditure is evident in the survey data currently being gathered under the Basic Income scheme, and the international recognition of our artists and creative sectors in the form of a Booker Prize and record level of Oscar nominations for films made in Ireland secured in recent years.
The Deputy will appreciate that I am firmly committed to continued growth in support for this sector, in my role as Minister.
