Ulster Unionist Culture, Arts and Leisure Spokesperson, Michael McGimpsey, has called on the Culture Minister to provide increased support for the Creative Industries following a debate in the Assembly on a Committee report on the inquiry into maximising the potential of the Creative Industries.

The South Belfast MLA said;

‘‘The Creative Industries, which usually consists of areas such as film, music, design, fashion, the arts and software and computer services, has so much economic potential in terms of growth. The success of the TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ is one example of that. In order to achieve more, I believe there needs to be a cross departmental approach with DCAL taking the lead. We must also specifically target our children and young people in order to push the creative agenda within our schools.

It is disappointing that despite the necessary groundwork being carried out in 2001 with the publication of the ‘Unlocking Creativity’ Strategy, there has been a 25% drop in GVA for the Creative Industries between 2008 and 2009 and there was also no change in the total number of creative businesses between 2010 and 2011 in either absolute or real terms. We have also seen the Creative Industries Innovation Fund (CIIF) slashed by 40% during this budgetary period.

I would call on the Minister to offer more financial support to the Creative Industries. Further to that, whilst we have seen the production of a number of strategies, subsequent evaluation and analysis of performance has been poor and this Minister must work to address that as soon as possible. The onus is firmly on the Minister to see the negative trend reversed and she can begin this by arguing the case for sufficient support for creative businesses.’’