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.

Quick Facts Formed, Preceding Department ...
Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure
Department overview
Formed1 December 1999
Preceding Department
  • Department of Education
    Department of Agriculture
Dissolved5 May 2016
Superseding Department
JurisdictionNorthern Ireland
HeadquartersCauseway Exchange, Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7EG
Employees269 (September 2011)[1]
Annual budget£112.1 million (current) & £16.3 million (capital) for 2011–12[2]
Websitewww.dcalni.gov.uk Edit this at Wikidata
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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:

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:

Its main counterparts in the Irish Government were:

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:

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

More information Minister, Image ...
MinisterImagePartyTook officeLeft office
   Michael McGimpseyUUP29 November 199911 February 2000
Office suspended
   Michael McGimpseyUUP30 May 200014 October 2002[27]
Office suspended
   Edwin PootsDUP14 May 20079 June 2008
   Gregory CampbellDUP9 June 200830 June 2009
   Nelson McCauslandDUP1 July 20094 May 2011
   Carál Ní ChuilínSinn Féin16 May 201130 March 2016
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Direct rule ministers

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

See also

References

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