‘Disappointing’ grant increase for Irish Arts Council

Published Tuesday 11 December 2007 at 11:20 by Anthony Garvey

The Irish Arts Council has been given a 3% increase in its annual grant, bringing its state funding for next year to €82 million - a real-terms cut and well short of the €100 million it had been seeking.

The allocation, announced by finance minister Brian Cowen in his budget speech, was described as “disappointing” by Tania Banotti of the Irish Theatre Forum, the representative body for the theatre and performing arts. “An increase of 3% is very small,” she said. “Inflation is running at 5%, so this is a cut in real terms. There are challenging times ahead for the arts scene.”

The funding blow was somewhat softened by Arts Minister Seamus Brennan, who is allocating an extra €3 million to the council through a supplementary estimate, specifically for touring. This, he said, would bring council funding to €85 million and represent a 6% rise on last year, which was in line with the increases for most other departments.

Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden acknowledged minister Brennan’s efforts, given the current strains on public finances, and said she looked forward to working with him in the year ahead “to build on this year’s provision”. She added that the council would be “continuing its work to achieve an annual arts allocation of over €100 million”.

However, the main opposition party spokeswoman on the arts, Olivia Mitchell, of Fine Gael, claimed the extra €3 million being allocated by the minister was not new money but department savings from the current year. She added: “When it finally dawns on the council that it has less money in 2008 than it had in 2007, it may not be as eager to fund a party for the current minister similar to the one it held recently for his predecessor”.

At that party, the guest of honour - former arts minister John O’Donoghue, who is now speaker in the Irish parliament - said he had found his term in the office an enriching experience. Another former arts minister, Michael D Higgins, was among the attendance, as were Fiach MacConghail of the Abbey, Michael Colgan of the Gate, Garry Hynes of Druid, and other leading figures of the arts community.