Benefits of arts for youth highlighted by senator

Senator Shane Cassells, along with his Fianna Fáil colleagues on the Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport, and Media, is calling for the State to develop a voucher scheme for 2022 that will allow every child and young person between the ages of four and 18 to access an approved series of classes in art, music, dance, drama or a creative activity.

The Fianna Fáil group on the committee includes chairperson, Deputy Niamh Smyth, Deputy Christopher O’Sullivan, Senator Malcolm Byrne, and Senator Cassells.

Senator Cassells commented: "In my own home town of Navan, I have seen the benefit of having the Solstice Centre, which is a top class theatre and arts centre and acts as a beacon to the world of artistic development. However, introducing children to that world though does not always happen as naturally as it does in the world of sport or other areas and so this voucher scheme could give children the opening into a creative world that they might not enjoy otherwise.

"Giving children that gift of a voucher could turn out to be the gift of entering an entirely new world altogether."

The group is proposing that vouchers would be provided through schools (and youth training facilities for those who have left school early) for use at approved arts/ music education providers. It would be a matter for each child or young person to choose how they would use the voucher.

A scheme with a €200 voucher provided for and used by each of the 560,000 primary school children and 365,000 second level students would cost about €185 million. This resource will support the local creative sector in all communities and classes and businesses that have been under pressure over the past eighteen months.