The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Séamus Brennan T.D. today unveiled details of the comprehensive Arts and Culture Plan 2008 that commits additional funding of €40m for arts and culture infrastructure projects countrywide, restoration of the Heritage Fund for the acquisition of works of artistic and cultural significance, extended and more flexible opening hours at national museums, cultural venues, galleries and libraries, and a doubling of funding for national touring programmes to bring drama and cultural events to a wider audience.
Speaking at the launch, Minister Brennan said: "Overall it must be acknowledged that the arts and culture sectors in this country are of central importance, not only to the cultural development and status of Ireland, but also in contributing to the economic and social progress of the country. Tourism, for example, benefits enormously from a thriving arts and culture sector that shows us as a people unique in heritage and unrivalled in written and dramatic expression. The Arts and Culture Plan 2008 demonstrates the significant level of activity taking place this year and the targets to be achieved, while also addressing many of the key challenges and objectives for the year and into the future. We have never had a better opportunity to make the arts, cultural and creative sectors truly central to our well being as a nation and to our future as an economy. This year alone, my Department will invest almost €250 million of taxpayer's money in the arts and culture sector and creative industries. Over the lifetime of the current National Development Plan, we will invest almost €1 billion in building and enhancing the physical infrastructure for those sectors right throughout the country. It is real, tangible investment in the real economy. We must grasp this opportunity to broaden and deeper interest in and access to the arts and culture for the benefit of all our citizens because we may be waiting some time to have a similar opportunity to make an investment legacy of such magnitude in this sector".