First of all, I'd like to say that perhaps we see Ireland as the front door to the EU and now the UN, following Brexit. But, there are three areas that I'd just like to touch upon: policy, partnerships and funding.
So, in the area of policy, I think developments of working jointly across organisations are going to be very important, and this joint statement has helped pave the way for that. I think the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 is very important, and there is a Bill that's going through the Irish Parliament at the moment that's very similar, without culture as part of it, I understand, but perhaps they'd like to learn from the experience here in Wales and see how that could work with that Act to provide a prominent place for culture in that area.
As Nia has mentioned, I think the work that's ongoing with UNESCO is going to be very important, and there's a means for us to collaborate on that and to see how Ireland have worked on that, and how they've worked with, for example, the intangible heritage aspect, and perhaps how we can give a prominent status to the Welsh language in that, for example with the cynghanedd. I think there's a need to think more carefully and more creatively about how we work jointly in international organisations specifically. In terms of policy as well, there is the aspect of decarbonisation, and that's very important to us. I was out in Dublin during St David's Day and there were discussions with the Irish theatre forum. We have members from Wales who are a part of that forum as part of a network that helps to develop networking into the next decade and to work in a more sustainable manner.
I also think that sport and more co-operation across that portfolio and being part of this Wales team that we've all been working hard to realise is going to be very important, and perhaps leads me into the partnership side of things and this organisational partnership working. We are working at the moment with the Arts Council of Ireland, and there is an intention to have a memorandum of understanding with them. We're also working with Culture Ireland, which is a body that promotes Ireland on an international level, and we're also working with Creative Ireland. Perhaps this provides to you directly the fact that, in one creative area, there are many organisations working. A lot of exchanges are happening in terms of festivals, and there are good examples of this going on as well as what's going on in other festivals, such as the National Eisteddfod.
But, I'd also like to suggest that there is more opportunity to work with international festivals where we can all present our cultures, where Ireland, perhaps, has been at the forefront. There's work ongoing on this in North America.
Last but not least, funding and financial support. Of course, we have small financial funding sources to work on an international level in the arts council, and that's important. Our programmes are important in this. Funding is being provided to the four nations in the UK to work with Ireland, but none of this, I can tell you, takes the place of European funding that's been lost, whether that's Creative Europe—. Of course, there was a commitment in the last Senedd to be looking to revisit that programme. But also, in this context, there is INTERREG. I do think that there is a means of working with these programmes, to buy into projects, and we are doing that through programmes such as 'On the Move' and promoting artists to work together, but there is still a large gap. Thank you.