Are the arts important? Should we really care? Have they a central place in society? Should the Exchequer fund them? The Government has given a resounding affirmative to these questions.

It provided £26 million to the Arts Council last year (a 25 per cent increase) to allow the first Arts Plan to be concluded a year earlier than the previous government was committed to. And this week it approved a new Arts Plan which will involve a total investment of £100 million over three years.

Every day I see the importance of the arts to communities and individuals throughout the State who labour to develop and maintain different cultural projects. Yet debates about the arts rarely make the front or any page of newspapers. Such debates are seldom seen as central issues. Surely the question of what kind of art and culture we have is an important part of the bigger question of our identity as a society?

At a time of unprecedented economic development and growth, it is important that a sector, crucial to the well-being and development of society, is not left behind. The vitality and dynamism of society depends on cultural activity. It is what identifies us as unique in an environment of economic globalisation.

It is also widely acknowledged that the development of the sector will facilitate the realisation of the very considerable economic and employment potential which the sector has to offer.

I have said before that the arts for me are about engagement. The arts are not a spectator sport for a passive elite. They should engage all of us. Great art reaches out and clutches us by the throat. Challenges us. Changes us. Forces us to think afresh about the world we live in. In doing this, the arts play a central role in a healthy and mature nation.

The overarching rationale of any policy must be one of inclusion, one of access. I reject the notion of the arts as something you must qualify to enjoy. Something elitist, academic, exclusionary.

Make no mistake. People have been excluded in the past. We must ensure the removal of any barriers to participation in the arts which exclude people because of disability or because of social background or because they live at a remove from a city or because they practise arts through the Irish language.

I also reject the notion that embracing the idea of inclusion means "dumbing down" the arts, that there is a trade-off between quality and inclusion. I want access, but access to artistic excellence.

The same approach is taken to the arts in Britain by Mr Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, whom I met in London last month. For him, and for me, the arts are for the many, not the few. Sustaining excellence and facilitating access are the twin pillars on which his policy is based.

With that shared vision, we are planning closer co-operation between our two countries in the area of arts, and we hope to sign a Memorandum of Understanding when Mr Smith visits Dublin in October.

There is, of course, a long-established practice of co-operation in the arts between the two parts of this island. A quiet, effective, harmonious relationship has existed between the Arts Councils in Belfast and Dublin for several years and this relationship continues to grow. All of this work will be of assistance to individual artists in achieving their full artistic potential.

The philosophy of inclusion and excellence underpins the new Arts Plan which recognises three interrelated objectives:

To promote excellence and innovation in the arts;

To develop participation in, and audiences for the arts;

To build capacity in the arts.

While much was achieved under the first plan, the arts sector in the State is still facing substantial barriers to development. In many cases the Arts Council funding met only the immediate needs of artists and organisations and did not provide the level of support required for them to develop strategically or to engage in long-term planning.

In drawing up this new plan, the Arts Council is adopting a strategy which aims to re-evaluate, reorganise and reinvigorate the place of the arts at the heart of Irish society. It recognises that to achieve its objectives it will need to adopt a more focused long-term development approach, rather than a more traditional funding agency approach.

A key element of the new plan is strategic partnerships between the Arts Council, the State, the arts sector, local authorities and other key players in the arts. The extent to which the arts realise their full potential will very much depend on the success of these partnerships.

Local authorities have a major role to play in the development of the arts locally. Over the period of the first plan, local authorities increased their support for the arts, even though in contrast with experiences in other countries, local authority spend on the arts is still very low in comparison with support from the central government.

If people in every part of the State are to have access to the arts then the necessary infrastructure will have to be developed. We need further significant investment in such infrastructure. A time of prosperity is the time to invest in our future, in cultural infrastructure as well as economic and social infrastructure.

Sile de Valera is Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands