Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (Northern Ireland)

The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL; Irish: An Roinn Cultúir, Ealaíon agus Fóillíochta; Ulster Scots: Männystrie o Fowkgates, Airts an Aisedom^[3]) was a devolved government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department was the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure.

Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure

Department overview
Formed	1 December 1999
Preceding Department	Department of Education Department of Agriculture
Dissolved	5 May 2016
Superseding Department	Department for Communities Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Department for Infrastructure
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]
Website	www.dcalni.gov.uk

After the election to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016, the DCAL was closed and its roles and functions were amalgamated with other departments in order to reduce the size of the Northern Ireland Executive.

Aim

DCAL's overall vision was a "confident, creative, informed and healthy society". It described 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 last Minister was Carál Ní Chuilín (Sinn Féin).^[5] The Minister was, by virtue of office, the Keeper of the Records for Northern Ireland.^[6]

Responsibilities

The department had the following main responsibilities:

• architecture;
• the arts;
• cultural diversity;
• inland waterways;
• languages;
• libraries;
• the distribution of National Lottery funding;
• museums;
• the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI); and
• sport.

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 were:

• the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS);^[8]
• the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (on inland fisheries);^[9] and
• the National Archives (on public records).^[10]

Its main counterparts in the Irish Government were:

• the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (on the Irish language);^[11]
• the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (on public libraries);^[12]
• the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport;^[13]
• the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (on inland fisheries).^[14]

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:

• between 12 February 2000^[15] and 30 May 2000;^[16]
• on 11 August 2001;^[17][18]
• on 22 September 2001;^[19][20]
• between 15 October 2002^[21] and 8 May 2007.^[22]

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 would "be presented to the Executive in due course".^[26]

Ministers of Culture, Arts and Leisure

	Minister	Image	Party	Took office	Left office
	Michael McGimpsey		UUP	29 November 1999	11 February 2000
Office suspended
	Michael McGimpsey		UUP	30 May 2000	14 October 2002[27]
Office suspended
	Edwin Poots		DUP	14 May 2007	9 June 2008
	Gregory Campbell		DUP	9 June 2008	30 June 2009
	Nelson McCausland		DUP	1 July 2009	4 May 2011
	Carál Ní Chuilín		Sinn Féin	16 May 2011	30 March 2016

Direct rule ministers

During the periods of suspension, the following ministers of the Northern Ireland Office were responsible for the department: ^{[citation needed]}

• George Howarth MP (2000)
• Angela Smith MP (2002–2005)
• David Hanson MP (2005–2006)
• Maria Eagle MP (2006–2007)

See also

• Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure (Northern Ireland Assembly)
• List of government ministers in Northern Ireland

References

1. "Northern Ireland Quarterly Employment Survey Historical Data". Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
2. "Budget 2011–15" (PDF). Department of Finance and Personnel. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 December 2011. 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. "Ministers and their departments | Northern Ireland Executive". Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011. Northern Ireland Executive
6. Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. "Site construction begins for the new PRONI Headquarters". Northern Ireland Executive. Archived from the original on 24 April 2011. 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 Archived 11 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
12. Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government: Public Libraries Archived 4 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine
13. Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport: About Us Archived 17 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine
14. "Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources: Inland Fisheries Division". Archived from the original on 2 February 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 November 2006. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
26. "Language/Cultural Diversity". Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Archived from the original on 25 October 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
27. Office suspended for 24 hours on 11 August 2001 and 22 September 2001

External links

• DCAL Archived 3 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• "The Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999" (PDF). (37.0 KB)