Sinn Féin spokesperson on Gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Arts, Culture, Tourism and Media, Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD, has said the budget for the arts showed an abysmal absence of ambition in today’s budget announcements from Ministers Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe.

The Dublin South Central TD said:

“Artists and those who love the arts should be made aware of the choices politicians make.

“If a Sinn Féin Finance Minister had been announcing the Budget today, we would have put at least three times as much additional expenditure into arts and culture than has happened today under Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens.

“Our Alternative Budget last week set out €32.5m extra measures that specifically come under the Arts/Culture budget vote, including new funding for the Arts Council, to assist film through Screen Ireland, for Irish artists touring abroad through Culture Ireland, for a new Traveller Culture and Language Fund, and for a programme of commemorations, based on an understanding that we need to take our creative and cultural sector seriously.

“That doesn’t include the €17.4m Activity Card scheme to begin roll out of €130 to every child to put towards taking part in arts and sports activities, the €10m we would put towards develop a culture quarter in Dublin at the 1916 battlesite of Moore Street, or the €63 million we would invest in our Irish language culture and the Gaeltacht.

“Today, the government put forward just €10.4m for the whole arts and culture budget. Sinn Féin would have spent almost twice that – €20m – on the Arts Council alone, which is now only set to get €6m from Minister Catherine Martin.

“We’re intrigued by Minister Martin’s announced funding to extend the basic income for the arts scheme beyond the pilot’s end, without providing any detail. Is this extension only set to benefit existing participants on the pilot scheme with a few months extra until the end of the year, excluding the control group and unsuccessful applicants, or is this aimed at delivering a broader long-term follow-on scheme like Sinn Féin have been calling for?

“The announcements of a new tax credit for unscripted film and a new uplift scheme came with a caveat that they’re subject to approval from the European Commission. I would have thought a government serious about our film sector would have had the conversation with the Commission before promising it in a Budget.

“I’ve spent the last few months talking with and listening to artists and arts workers, putting together a 50-point plan a Sinn Féin Arts Minister would go about implementing with ambition and proper funding, demonstrating that we take the arts seriously.

“Today’s budget showed artists that the government parties do not.”