Aosdana is an association of creative artists, which was set up in 1981, over half of whose members (155) receive a Cnuas or annual payment of €17,180. The money, which is provided by the Arts Council, enables part-time artists with limited means to become full time writers, painters, sculptors, and musicians with fewer financial worries. Eligibility for the cnuas is means-tested, and the payment is for a fixed and renewable period. This year Aosdana will receive €2.7 million from the Arts Council, almost wholly used to finance the cnuas payments to Aosdana members.

When Aosdana – the brainchild of then taoiseach, Charles Haughey – was established, it was seen as an imaginative gesture to the arts, offering struggling artists a greater measure of financial security. The cnuas payment provided an insurance policy for writers and artists. It ensured they received something approaching a living wage, which helped to facilitate their creative endeavours. A worry then expressed by one future Aosdana member was whether the public would resent this generous new concession to creative artists. Over three decades later – at last week’s annual general meeting of Aosdana – James Hanley, an artist and Aosdana member, uttered some similar sentiments. He said he was “sometimes embarrassed” by the public’s questions about how Aosdana operated. And these, he felt, the organisation had failed to address.

Aosdana relies on public money and therefore needs to retain public support. The attitude of one Aosdana member, Alice Hanratty, in stating that she had “nothing but contempt” for critics of Aosdana, may not be representative of the overall membership. Nevertheless, these are ill- advised remarks. Aosdana enjoys considerable financial support and a good deal of independence in how it operates. It is free to elect its own members and to administer its own affairs. But that freedom and independence does not make it less accountable to the public for its actions, or place it above scrutiny and criticism, where that is justified.