Museums and cultural institutions will have their weekend and evening opening hours extended as part of new measures to increase public access to the arts announced today.
Under the Arts and Culture Plan 2008, the Government plans to create a National Culture Day in 2009 when admission prices will be removed or reduced for events.
"We must grasp this opportunity to broaden and deeper interest in and access to the arts and culture for the benefit of all our citizens," Minister for Arts Séamus Brennan said this afternoon.
The plan commits additional funding of €40 million for projects nationwide including the restoration of the Heritage Fund and a doubling of funding for national touring programmes to bring drama and cultural events to a wider audience.
It provides for the Abbey Theatre to tour for the first time in years, and for the Gate Theatre to take Beckett's Waiting for Godotto 40 venues around the country.
Mr Brennan also announced funding for a number of digitisation projects, including the next phase of online access to the original records of the 1901-1911 Census of Population and the records of the Royal Dublin Society.
The Minister said: "The arts and culture sectors in this country are of central importance, not only to the cultural development and status of Ireland, but also in contributing to the economic and social progress of the country.
"Tourism, for example, benefits enormously from a thriving arts and culture sector."
