Minister Announces Plans to Draft National Cultural Policy - Culture 2025
Jimmy Deenihan, Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaelteach has announced that the Government has approved his plans to begin drafting a National Cultural Policy - Culture 2025 - which will set out the high-level aims and policies of the Government in the area of culture, for the period up until 2025.
In its Programme for Government, in March 2011, the Irish Government committed to the development of a national Cultural Policy. Culture 2025 will be the first comprehensive cultural policy to emerge from Government in several decades. Recognising the significance of this policy, Minister Deenihan said:
"The National Cultural Policy will illuminate the intrinsic value of the arts, creativity and our dynamic nation's intellectual achievements. It will demonstrate how culture can expand and enhance an inclusive society, by delivering an arts education, creating career pathways, providing avenues for expression for our citizens, driving innovation and contributing to our economic well-being"
The Minister further stated that wide access to the arts, culture, film and music and Ireland's rich heritage, including our language, is vital to preserving and evolving our national identity and helping to promote Ireland's image abroad. The arts, cultural heritage and creative industries also make a major contribution to our economy and to sustaining and creating jobs.
This is an opportune time for a fundamental review of Ireland's cultural policy and the steps that need to be taken to develop this sector. Cultural tourism has a significant contribution to make to Ireland's economic recovery and the renewal of Ireland's reputation on the international stage.
Culture 2025 will serve to maximise Irish cultures' contribution to society in general and will focus inter alia, on:
- The meaning of culture in the 21st century;
- What can be done to embed culture at the heart of public sector decision-making and discourse, and in corporate and private sector decision-making;
- Policies for growth and expansion;
- International representation and collaboration;
- The delivery of cultural services in the digital age; and
- Issues relating to intellectual property, copyright and associated matters.
In the future, the intention is to start a wide-scale and sustained consultation process using principles of openness and transparency, where cultural agencies and individual, interested stakeholders across Ireland, will have the opportunity to highlight the keystones that the Government should adopt in developing a cultural policy for the period up until 2025. The aim is to have this process completed and a Government policy agreed during 2016.