As part of Budget 2020, Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Josepha Madigan has today announced an increase of €5m (7%) for the Arts Council, bringing its funding to €80m.

€1.25m of the increase is to support performing artists, arts festivals, street arts and family events, and the remaining €3.75m is to be used to support the traditional arts, Culture Night and the Creative Schools initiative.

The Minister has also announced funding of €1m in order to start the process of transferring the National Symphony Orchestra from RTÉ to the remit of the National Concert Hall, which was the main recommendation of the report on the orchestras last year.

Galway 2020 is to receive an additional €1.1m in capital funding, on top of the €6m already announced in 2019, bringing the total to €7.1m for the European City of Culture, which recently announces its music programme.

Among the other announcements in the Budget are funding of €250k for the amateur theatre sector in Ireland; additional funding of €1m for Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland; €900k for the Decade of Centenaries 2020 programme; and continued funding for Creative Ireland and Culture Ireland, which last year received €7.15m and €4.1m respectively.

For further details, visit www.chg.gov.ie.