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Abbey axes workforce by third in centenary year

Published Wednesday 15 September 2004 at 12:25 by Anthony Garvey

Ireland’s national theatre, the Abbey, has been forced to announce staff cutbacks right in the middle of its centenary year celebrations.

Around a third of the theatre’s 90-strong core staff are to lose their jobs over the next 16 months as the Abbey struggles to combat mounting box office losses and a deficit of 800,000 euros. The financial situation has been worsened by the ambitious programme announced for the centenary celebrations, with the result that two shows have already been dropped from the official list of productions.

But the Abbey’s managing director, Brian Jackson, insisted that the proposed restructuring was part of a long-term strategy aimed at ensuring financial stability.

Everything had to be considered, he said, including cuts to the number of productions, the length of runs, earlier start times and weekend performance schedules. “A combination of all that will deliver a much leaner and fitter organisation.”

Staff were called to an emergency meeting with Abbey management in Dublin last week to be given details of the cutbacks. Artistic director Ben Barnes, who has announced that he is to quit at end of next year, was not present. Barnes was in Brisbane directing a production of The Gigli Concert, by Tom Murphy, but now plans to cut short his stay and return home.

The 30 redundancies are to be concentrated in “non-core and support” areas, which may include outreach and education services. Speculation that the literary department, which has been expanded under Barnes to help develop new writing talent, might also be axed has been denied.

Management believes the cutbacks can be achieved mainly through the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts but permanent staff who have been with the theatre for more than seven years are also being offered redundancy terms of four to six weeks’ pay per year of service. Unions have expressed shock at the scale of the job losses and have called on government, as the major shareholder, to outliine its long-term plans for the theatre.

Abbey chairwoman Eithne Healy said. “It might have been easier to leave them for another day but I am very pleased that no one on the board wants to do that.”

However, staff have reacted angrily to the news. “People have a lot of questions about how this situation was allowed to come about,” said one employee.

The Abbey’s finances were dealt a severe blow last year when a reduced budget for the Arts Council resulted in its grant being cut by 700,000 euros.

This year it was allocated 4.5 million euros, an increase of 300,000 euros on the 2003 figure, and an additional one million euros was contributed by arts minister John O’Donoghue towards the centenary programme.

However, the Abbey’s fundraising drive for the centenary celebrations, chaired by John McColgan, has fallen short of expectations by a reported 500,000 euros. The Abbey also suffered a 16% decline in attendances last year.

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