The Stage

Abbey staff seek job assurance

Published Wednesday 10 August 2005 at 12:05 by Anthony Garvey

Staff at the beleaguered Irish national theatre, the Abbey, are seeking assurances from the arts council about their jobs, following a threat by the body to withdraw the venue’s funding unless new management structures are put in place.

More than 70 of the Abbey’s 90-plus staff are represented by SIPTU, Ireland’s largest trade union. One of its officials, Jane Boushell, said they were concerned about the latest development as they had recently been told by Abbey management that the jobs were safe. A meeting was being sought with the arts council to ask for assurances that both funding and employment would be maintained.

The staff, she added, had been co-operating with management and other parties in addressing the issues behind the Abbey’s current financial difficulties.

The arts council’s funding threat came after it had considered a highly criticial report by KPMG consultants on how the Abbey lost 1.8m euros in 2004, its centenary year, but failed to discover almost 1m euros of the loss until a few months ago. Council chairwoman Olive Braiden said members “were extremely angry at the extent of the mismanagement of public funds” and warned that unless fundamental management changes were implemented, the council would only meet the Abbey’s day to day running costs till the end of this month (August).

The council is demanding that both the current board and the National Theatre Society, the company that runs the Abbey, step down as a precondition for further funding. According to Ms Braiden, the arts council is committed to saving the national theatre “as a major national cultural institution - but this can only be done with a new company and a new board”.

Arts Minister John O’Donoghue has already said he intends to appoint a new slimmed-down board as part of a management restructuring. In a statement, following its recent meeting, the arts council said it “will insist that the National Theatre Society, at its forthcoming EGM, commits to dissolving itself on the day that a new company with a new board is established”.

The statement went on to warn: “If the National Theatre Society does not agree to dissolve itself in favour of new structures, the arts council will make no further funding available.”

The state grant to the Abbey, administered through the council, totals just over 5m euros this year. In addition, the minister has provided a stabilisation grant of 2m euros to the theatre to help ease the current crisis. Payment of this was made conditional on restructuring changes and so far only aquarter of it has been released by the council.

As reported in The Stage recently, the Abbey had to seek emergency funding from the council to enable it to pay staff wages.