Questions to the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure |
List of questions to the Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure for oral answer
Mrs Mary Bradley (Foyle):
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline the approach he will take to mitigate the reduction in funding available for the arts and sport, resulting from the prioritisation of lottery spending on the London Olympics.
(AQO 58/07)
Mr John Dallat (East Londonderry):
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to state what resources have been made available to the Ulster Orchestra to organise workshops in schools and colleges.
(AQO 45/07)
Mr Trevor Lunn (Lagan Valley):
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure what plans he has to reallocate resources towards bringing per capita arts funding into line with Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
(AQO 14/07)
Ms Anna Lo (South Belfast):
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to make a statement on the level of arts funding per capita in Northern Ireland.
(AQO 13/07)
Mr Pat Ramsey (Foyle):
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline whether his department has made an assessment of the impact on the tourist industry of expenditure by his department on the arts.
(AQO 54/07)
Mr David Ford (South Antrim):
To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to make a statement on the potential for a Northern Ireland theatre initiative, in line with those already operating in Scotland and Wales.
(AQO 18/07)
During Assembly Oral Answers 10th September, the Minister, Edwin Poots, made the following responses:
Kieran McCarthy (Alliance):
1. “To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure what are his plans to address the shortfall in funding, in light of the recent decision by the National Lottery to redirect £42 million from Northern Ireland’s grant, and channel it towards the Olympic Games in 2012.” (AQO 45/08)
Ken Robinson (UUP):
16. “To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure what steps he is taking to offset the impact on arts and community groups of the reduction in National Lottery funding, due to its redirection to support 2012 London Olympic Games projects.” (AQO 33/08)
Edwin Poots (DUP):
“With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will take questions 1 and 16 together. The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure is making bids for funding as part of the comprehensive spending review 2008-11 to support the development of sport and the arts. Those bids will take account of reductions in funding resulting from prioritisation of lottery spending on the London Olympics.
The Department is also making bids for funding for sport and the arts under the investment strategy for Northern Ireland 2008-18. The Olympics will also provide some further funding opportunities for cultural projects associated with the Cultural Olympiad. I will be keen to see arts organisations engage with those opportunities when they arise.”
“The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has recently confirmed that an agreement has been reached with the Mayor of London under which DCMS should, in time, be able to refund the £675 million additional contribution to the lottery distributors. It is hoped that that will come from the proceeds of the sale of Olympic Park land post-2012.”
Kieran McCarthy (Alliance):
“May I say to the Minister that making bids at this time is no guarantee; nor are hopes useful. Bearing in mind that the loss of jobs will be horrendous, is this not another case of the UK Government sacrificing the interests of the regions to placate those of the south-east of England? The voluntary sector is suffering from a shortfall of £28.70 million; the built heritage sector is £4.83 million short of its usual allocation, while the Arts Council and Sport Northern Ireland are £4.50 million and £4.10 million short respectively. The Minister knows that all of those organisations are already grossly underfunded. What steps is the Minister taking to work with other devolved Administrations to ensure that a similar situation cannot occur in the future in Northern Ireland?”
Edwin Poots (DUP):
“In the first instance, all the devolved Administrations stated that they were opposed to the move at the outset, and sought to reduce the amount of money that would go to the London Olympics from those sources at this time. We will vigorously oppose any further leakage of money from Northern Ireland. However, we must concentrate on what we can do now, which is, within our own block budget, to identify how the arts, sport and cultural pursuits can benefit the Northern Ireland community and its economy, and to seek to raise funding for those facilities.”
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