Budget 2027

130. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport the position regarding the culture card which was promised in advance of budget 2027; if he has considered the activity card proposal put forward by Sinn Féin which would apply not only to ticketed events but to active participation of children in sports and cultural activities. [74475/26]

A month ago, RTÉ news reported teenagers were to receive a €100 culture voucher in the budget. The day before the budget, the Minister's spokesperson confirmed the funding was secured. This followed the programme for Government commitment to a culture card in 2025 and a hype video in February featuring Government TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere shouting "Yeah, baby" and pretending to be a DJ. My question is simple: what happened to that culture card?

I thank the Deputy. I will pass on his compliments to Deputy Cleere on his DJing capacities.

I did not say he was a good DJ.

I think he had potential. The programme for Government committed to “examine the introduction of a Culture Card for 16 and 17-year-olds to access theatre, music and art events”. The delivery of a youth culture card was always subject to budget allocation, and while budget 2027 has not provided funding for the roll-out of the programme, the Department will continue to explore the development of a culture card for our young people, in line with the programme for Government commitment. Our overarching aim is to support increased participation in cultural life among young people in Ireland, encouraging engagement with arts and creative industries at a critical developmental stage. This remains an important priority. Options for the development, operation, scope and funding structure for culture cards are being explored further. Anticipated benefits include stimulating lifelong creative engagement, improving well-being outcomes and providing direct economic stimulus for the cultural and creative sectors. In addition, the proposal would support broader priorities around online safety and youth engagement, offering young people alternative social engagement beyond their mobile phones. The proposed culture card is just one way to increase young people's cultural engagement. My Department already supports a range of institutions, programmes and initiatives that create opportunities for young people nationwide, including through Creative Ireland’s creative youth action plan and funding for initiatives such as local creative youth partnerships, creative schools and Cruinniú na nÓg.

We had the kite-flying, the hype and the song and dance about this. It is on and off again. Will the Minister of State confirm whether we will see a properly funded culture card for young people in next year's budget? Will the work be concluded? With all the hype beforehand, I presumed the Minister had done his homework, investigated similar culture cards around the world and put in the work with the Minister for Finance well in advance of the budget two weeks ago, yet it seems that work had not been concluded and they are going back to researching this again. It seems to be starting all over again, rather than delivering what was promised. We were basically told it was ready to go when it obviously was not.

I can confirm it is a programme for Government commitment to "examine the introduction of a Culture Card for 16 and 17-year-olds to enable them to access theatre, music and arts events". I can also confirm the budget introduced at the start of this month was the second of five this Government will introduce. As with any large programme of commitments laid out over a five-year period, you cannot do everything in year 1 or year 2. There are three more budgets left. As the Minister has clearly outlined, work is ongoing in the Department to explore how the culture card concept would work and the proposal around it. It will be considered in the context of the budget next year and in the context of delivering on programme for Government commitments. I think all of us agree on the merits of the proposal but all of us are clear we cannot do everything at once. We have a commitment there to progress it.

I support the concept of an activity card. It is in our own pre-budget submission and has been for a number of years. We have looked at it. The Minister of State spoke of years 1, 2 and 3 but then he said work would continue on exploring it. That suggests it is not shovel-ready, to take a phrase from the previous question. It does not suggest the Department has gone beyond the concept of the culture card. I implore it to do the work so that next year's budget has the concept nailed down and it can be delivered from day one, rather than saying it is another one of those that need research, that the Department will look at the concept again next year or that it will introduce a pilot. This is a promise in the programme for Government and it should be delivered as soon as possible.

I welcome the Deputy's support for the idea of a culture card. Work is continuing in the Department on assessing how it would work and its implementation pathway. Critical to making it happen is a funding line for it. As the Minister has said, that will be revisited in budget discussions next year in the context of a clear commitment in the programme for Government to progress it. The merits of it are strong, and there is strong support from the Deputy and others across the House for it. While we would like to be able to do it immediately, everything is budget permitting and it will be revisited.