Member's statement: Musical Instruments Programme
Member's statement by Miss Nicola Brogan on .
- MLA
- Miss Nicola Brogan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Musical Instruments Programme
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795348
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The musical instruments programme provides an often-vital lifeline for musicians, bands and performers. It is crucial that the integrity of the programme is upheld and that those who benefit from it are not in breach of the Arts Council's standard conditions for grants or the good relations duty that the programme requires. The latest tranche of the fund is worth £750,000 of public money. If we are to retain public trust in the Executive, the Department for Communities, the Arts Council and the programme itself, it is important that public funds are not seen to be funnelled towards organisations that have openly announced their intentions to flout those standards and duties. In the past week, we have seen at least 10 marching bands announce publicly that they will no longer engage with the Parades Commission or the PSNI, and we have seen at least one band hold an unnotified parade. Several of those bands have benefited from previous iterations of the musical instruments programme to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds. I therefore urge the Arts Council and the Minister for Communities to state clearly that bands that refuse to engage with the Parades Commission and the PSNI will not qualify for the musical instruments programme and that the Arts Council will use its powers to recover already issued funds from bands that have announced such intentions. The arts in the North are already desperately underfunded. We cannot allow what little funding there is to go to organisations that show open disdain for the Arts Council's standards and duties and have used the funding that they have been given to break them. As we saw from the incredible success of the fleadh, the arts in Ireland have a huge capacity to contribute to the public good and promote reconciliation and understanding. We must ensure that public money goes to organisations that have that as their intent.
318 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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