The Stage

Calls to abolish Irish arts ministry greeted with anger by cultural leaders

Published Friday 24 July 2009 at 18:13 by Anthony Garvey

A report recommending that the Irish Republic’s department of the arts be abolished, its functions transferred elsewhere and overall funding cut by €37 million has shocked and angered those involved in the sector.

Arts Council chairwoman Pat Moylan led the criticism, describing the arts as “Ireland’s greatest national resource” and emphasising the importance of maintaining a separate department and minister. Druid Theatre Group founder and director Garry Hynes said the suggestion “that the arts are no longer important, is incredible to me”.

The swingeing cutbacks are proposed in a report by a government-appointed committee, headed by Irish economist Colm McCarthy. It had been asked to identify public expenditure cuts to help rescue the Republic from its current economic crisis. In what has been described as a slash-and-burn exercise, the committee delivered potential savings of €5bn, including the abolition of two departments, with the loss of two ministers. One would be current arts minister Martin Cullen.

The report suggests that the functions of the minister be transferred to other departments as part of a major overhaul of government structures and state agencies. It also recommends a €37m reduction in state spending on arts and culture.

Ministers have been keen to stress that the report represents “a menu of options” and that ultimate decisions will be for government. But with the national finances in serious deficit, no one doubts that several of the proposals will be implemented.

Speaking at the opening of the newly refurbished Druid Theatre in Galway, Pat Moylan warned that any downgrading of the arts would be a serious mistake. “The arts remain one of Ireland’s key attributes in the mind of the world,” she said. “Here at home, they employ 50,000, almost as many as the IT sector, and we need our own minister at the cabinet table. It makes a difference and we must ensure it continues.”

Hynes said cultural tourism was growing, even in the recession. “Seven and a half million people come here and they don’t come for the weather.” She urged those involved to press home the message that the arts are not an optional extra, they matter. “People like me don’t speak up loud or long enough,” she said, adding that “the next years will be harder than we can remember”.