Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (Northern Ireland)

Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Department overview
Formed 1 December 1999
Preceding Department
  • Department of Education
    Department of Agriculture
Jurisdiction Northern Ireland
Headquarters Causeway Exchange, Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7EG
Employees 269 (September 2011)[1]
Annual budget £112.1 million (current) & £16.3 million (capital) for 2011–12[2]
Minister responsible
Website www.dcalni.gov.uk
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The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), translated in Irish as An Roinn Cultúir, Ealaíon agus Fóillíochta and in Ulster-Scots as Männystrie o Fowkgates, Airts an Aisedom,[3] is a devolved Northern Irish government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure.

Aim

DCAL's overall vision is a "confident, creative, informed and healthy society". It describes its mission as delivering economic growth and enhancing the quality of life in Northern Ireland by "unlocking the full potential of the culture, arts and leisure sectors."[4]

The incumbent Minister is Carál Ní Chuilín (Sinn Féin).[5] The Minister is, by virtue of office, the Keeper of the Records for Northern Ireland.[6]

Responsibilities

The department has the following main responsibilities:

Broadcasting, intellectual property and the administration of the National Lottery are reserved to Westminster and are therefore not devolved .[7]

DCAL's main counterparts in the United Kingdom Government are:

Its main counterparts in the Irish Government are:

History

Following a referendum on the Belfast Agreement on 23 May 1998 and the granting of royal assent to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 on 19 November 1998, a Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive were established by the United Kingdom Government under Prime Minister Tony Blair. The process was known as devolution and was set up to return devolved legislative powers to Northern Ireland. DCAL was one of five new devolved Northern Ireland departments created in December 1999 by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.

A devolved minister first took office on 2 December 1999. Devolution was suspended for four periods, during which the department came under the responsibility of direct rule ministers from the Northern Ireland Office:

Since 8 May 2007, devolution has operated without interruption.

Under the St Andrews Agreement (signed 13 October 2006), the Executive is obliged to adopt strategies on enhancing and protecting the development of the Irish language and enhancing and developing Ulster Scots language, heritage and culture.[23][24] The agreement also committed the United Kingdom Government to introducing "an Irish Language Act reflecting on the experience of Wales and Ireland".[25] Welsh and Irish are official languages in those respective countries.

Language policy was devolved, alongside the department's other responsibilities, on 8 May 2007. As of March 2012, neither an Irish language strategy or act, nor an Ulster Scots strategy, had been adopted. The department stated that a Strategy for Indigenous or Regional Minority Languages "will be presented to the Executive in due course".[26]

Ministers of Culture, Arts and Leisure

MinisterImagePartyTook officeLeft office
    Michael McGimpsey UUP 2 December 199911 February 2000
Office suspended
    Michael McGimpsey UUP 30 May 2000 14 October 2002[27]
Office suspended
    Edwin Poots DUP 8 May 2007 9 June 2008
    Gregory Campbell DUP 9 June 2008 1 July 2009
    Nelson McCausland DUP 1 July 20095 May 2011
    Carál Ní Chuilín Sinn Féin 16 May 2011 Incumbent

Direct rule ministers

During the periods of suspension, the following ministers of the Northern Ireland Office were responsible for the department:

See also

References

  1. "Northern Ireland Quarterly Employment Survey Historical Data". Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  2. "Budget 2011–15" (PDF). Department of Finance and Personnel. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  3. Männystrie o Fowkgates, Airts an Aisedom is the name used by the Department itself, although other variants, like the Depairtment o Cultur, Airts an Leisur, are also in use.
  4. Northern Ireland Budget 2011–15, page 44
  5. http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/index/work-of-the-executive/ministers-and-their-departments.htm Northern Ireland Executive
  6. Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. "Site construction begins for the new PRONI Headquarters". Northern Ireland Executive. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
  7. Northern Ireland Act 1998, Schedule 3
  8. DCMS: About us
  9. Defra: Marine and freshwater fisheries
  10. The National Archives: How we are run
  11. Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht: Welcome
  12. Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government: Public Libraries
  13. Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: About Us
  14. Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Inland Fisheries Division
  15. Article 2, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Commencement) Order 2000
  16. Article 2, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Restoration of Devolved Government) Order 2000
  17. Article 1, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Suspension of Devolved Government) Order 2001
  18. Article 2, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Restoration of Devolved Government) Order 2001
  19. Article 1, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Suspension of Devolved Government) (No.2) Order 2001
  20. Article 2, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Restoration of Devolved Government) (No.2) Order 2001
  21. Article 1, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Suspension of Devolved Government) Order 2002
  22. Article 2, Northern Ireland Act 2000 (Restoration of Devolved Government) Order 2007
  23. Section 28D, Northern Ireland Act 1998
  24. Section 28E, Northern Ireland Act 1998
  25. "Human Rights, Equality, Victims and Other Issues". St Andrews Agreement (PDF). 2006. p. 11. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
  26. "Language/Cultural Diversity". Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
  27. Office suspended for 24 hours on 11 August 2001 and 22 September 2001

External links

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