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Friday 26 January 2001 Theatres Mr Gibson asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline the steps he is taking to support theatres. (AQW 1148/00) The Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure (Mr McGimpsey): The Arts Council of Northern Ireland currently provides annual revenue funding of almost £1·2 million for theatres across Northern Ireland:
The advent of the National Lottery has enabled the Arts Council to make a substantial commitment to arts venues and theatres right across Northern Ireland. Over the last year new theatres and arts venues have opened in Cookstown (£1·125 million) and Armagh (£3·7 million). Further funding has been committed by the Arts Council Lottery to the verbal arts centre in Londonderry (£1·2 million, official opening in March), Lisburn (£1·302 million), the Great Hall for the Down Lisburn Trust (£189,000), Portadown (£912,000), Ballymena (£2 million), Derry City (£2·6 million) and Omagh (£4 million). Most of the building projects will be completed by the end of the year. The Arts Council has achieved its objective of providing, by 2001, a dedicated arts facility within a 20-mile radius of every person in Northern Ireland and is committed to the creation of a society where theatres and arts centres become every community’s natural focus. Sport and the Arts Mr Gibson asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline the steps he is taking to encourage sport and the arts in areas of high unemployment. (AQW 1150/00) Mr McGimpsey: One of the strategic goals in the corporate strategy for my Department is to increase participation in culture, arts and leisure through enhancing access to, and the quality of, facilities and services. This includes widening access and extending participation in all areas of the work of the Department. Sport and the arts are two important areas. These objectives can be realised in part through the New TSN programme. To assist the Department and its partners meet its obligations under this programme, research has been commissioned to identify indicators of social disadvantage and barriers to participation. The initial piece of research is due to be completed on 31 March. Thereafter, my Department will consider what action needs to be taken in conjunction with its key partners to deliver services to those most in need. We will be working with the Sports Council and the Arts Council, the bodies with responsibility for the development of sport and the arts, to encourage increased participation by those people living in socially deprived areas. I hope you find this helpful. Improvement of Arts Education Mr Gibson asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline the contribution he is making to the improvement of arts education. (AQW 1186/00) Mr McGimpsey: The report ‘Unlocking Creativity’ was published by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure on 8 November 2000 with the support of the Department of the Environment, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Industry and the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment. Over 5,000 copies have been distributed for consultation, which runs until 28 February. The report is intended to stimulate broad discussion and facilitate the formulation of an interdepartmental action plan. A briefing session for the Assembly Committees of the four Departments will be held at Parliament Buildings on 8 February. ‘Unlocking Creativity’ recognises explicitly the importance of harnessing creativity as a cross-cutting issue that can impact positively not only on the cultural sector, but also in the areas of formal and informal education, and social and economic development. It highlights the requirement for the education system to respond to the business community’s needs for creative abilities in developing teamwork, social skills and powers of communication. The five education and library boards, along with district councils and the Arts Council, are working with my Department in developing a global strategic approach specifically for the needs of the arts in education. The Arts Council and the five boards will provide a detailed response to ‘Unlocking Creativity’ before the end of February. My Department is also seeking to ensure that the next round of funding from the new opportunities fund will include provision for sport and the arts in schools. Administrative Data Sets Dr O’Hagan asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to list the administrative data sets held by the Department and its agencies and detail whether these data sets provide qualitative data at enumeration district, electoral ward level, by district council area or by parliamentary constituency. (AQW 1241/00) Mr McGimpsey: I can confirm that my Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies hold the following administrative data sets:-
Specific Sports Development data Sets
As these lists all hold postcodes they may be capable of analysis by enumeration district, electoral ward level, by district council area or by parliamentary constituency. All Northern Ireland Civil Service departments maintain a range of records on their staff for the purposes of carrying out their functions as employers. Many of the records for individual members of staff are held on computerised systems managed by the Department of Finance and Personnel on behalf of Departments and their respective agencies. These records include personnel, payroll and training records, applicant records for recruitment competitions and superannuation records for retired civil servants. Such records are not managed in a way that routinely provides data sets by enumeration district, electoral ward, district council or parliamentary constituency. Commemoration of the Battle of Cráeb Tulcha (Crew Hill) Dr Adamson asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to detail any plans to celebrate the millennium of the first great battle of Cráeb Tulcha (Crew Hill) in 2004 and if he will make a statement. (AQO 593/00) Mr McGimpsey: My Department has no plans to celebrate the battle of Cráeb Tulcha in which the Ui Neills from mid-Ulster defeated the Ulaid, the people of the eastern part of modern Ulster. The battle was fought in 1004 at Crew Hill near Glenavy, Co Antrim and was a disastrous defeat for the Ulaid. While this obviously is of some historical significance, there is no particular reason for celebrating or commemorating the event and my Department has no plans to do so. However, I understand that Lisburn Museum may be giving consideration to commemorating the event in its programme for 2003-04. Provision of the Internet in Public Libraries Mr Ford asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to outline his policy on the provision of Internet access in public libraries and if he will make a statement. (AQO 581/00) Mr McGimpsey: My Department’s vision as set out in our corporate strategy is to achieve a confident, creative, informed and prosperous community. In this modern information age, one way to achieve this is to ensure that information is available to as many people as possible through the Internet. Our public libraries are ideally placed as information centres and many are already providing Internet access to enable the public to call in and become familiar with IT at their own pace. My Department is committed to maximising the benefits from the use of new technology including the connection of all public libraries to the Internet through projects such as the electronic libraries project. Carp Fishing Mr Davis asked the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure if he is aware of the concerns throughout the angling community about the introduction of carp fishing and if he will make a statement. (AQO 592/00) Mr McGimpsey: I decided to allow the development of carp fisheries in Northern Ireland to cater for a growing demand from local anglers and to expand the variety of fishing available to tourist anglers. I am aware that there are some concerns among the angling community about the potential impact the introduction of this non-native species will have on indigenous fish stocks. To safeguard native fish stocks a number of conditions will apply. Carp will only be permitted into lakes that have no, or very low, fishery value and any outlets to other loughs or rivers will have to be adequately screened to prevent escapes; the carp introduced will have to be certified as being from a disease free stock and a licence for each site will be required from the Department of the Environment under the provisions of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985. |