Debate contribution: Valuing the Arts

Debate contribution by Ms Sinéad McLaughlin on 17 June 2025.

MLA

Ms Sinéad McLaughlin

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

17 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Valuing the Arts

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5013959

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. In Northern Ireland, the arts are one of our region's greatest strengths. I suspect that there is very little disagreement on that among the parties in the Chamber. In each corner of Northern Ireland, from theatre halls to arts centres, the arts build bridges, spark dialogue and bring people of all backgrounds together. They act as a quiet engine for our peace, holding a mirror up to our society in ways that can move us to laughter or bring us to tears in equal measure. Many of us swell with pride when people from outside Northern Ireland talk of the region's cultural assets, including shows such as 'Game of Thrones', 'Blue Lights', 'Line of Duty' and, of course, 'Derry Girls'. While news headlines, as we have seen over the past week, are too often about the worst aspects of Northern Ireland's society, our culture represents some of the very best. The arts are also a huge boon to our economic prosperity. A 2023 report found that, in 2022, the creative industries contributed £49 billion to the UK economy and supported nearly one million jobs. That is enormous. The economic power of the arts has been recognised in other places. Recently, the UK Government announced the £270 million Arts Everywhere fund to create jobs and build creative skills for young people, yet, in Northern Ireland, we still fail to realise that economic possibility or the multiplier effect that arts investment can have throughout society. That failure is reflected in the level of funding allocated to our arts sector, across the North. Northern Ireland receives the lowest per capita investment in arts funding of all the UK nations. Per capita, the arts in Northern Ireland receive just £5·07, which is half of what they receive in Wales, where the investment is £10·51 per head. In Ireland, the equivalent body to the Arts Council receives four times the level of commitment from the Irish Government, while the Arts Council here has detailed that government investment in the arts fell by £10 million in real terms between 2011 and 2023. That is self-sabotage, particularly when we think about our return on investment, and it should be stopped. We see a 23% return on every penny invested in the arts. Simply cutting arts funding is penny wise and pound foolish, and it should form no part of the Government's agenda. Unfortunately, when I listen to the Communities Minister, I do not get a sense that he understands the sector's economic potential. Last week, the Minister very graciously detailed the differences between population sizes and the quantum of arts funding. He seems to have no problem with the fact that Belfast receives 70% of all arts funding. Moreover, by making such basic comparisons between population and arts funding, he totally neglects his responsibility to understand the arts as a lever to help address and redress economic disadvantage and how funding should be tailored to the places with most potential. Derry is the second city of this place. It receives 12% of the funding. I want to see every region get proper arts funding and every artist be supported, but I also want to be assured that the arts potential in our city — a city that most Members know to be bursting with creative potential — is properly supported. Realistically, how can we say that it is when organisations such as Echo Echo Dance Theatre Company and others have had their funding cut or, in many cases, removed completely or when the Riverside Theatre in Coleraine faces closure? Regional balance is not about everywhere getting an equal slice of the pie, not that we have to worry about that in this case. It is about the gap between the investment in places and their potential. We call on the Communities Minister and the Economy Minister to work together to produce, by October, a joint multi-year funding and delivery strategy that ends short-term, opaque and unsustainable funding for arts organisations, recognises their value and places them at the heart of a better approach to boosting our economy. The strategy should include clear, transparent funding criteria, guarantee fair support across all regions and be co-designed by the sector. That is why we tabled today's motion, and I hope that it will receive broad support. The Programme for Government does not mention the arts once. There is not a single reference in it to artists' enriching our communities and driving our growth. That is political —

— ignorance.

759 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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