The Arts Council's annual policy meeting is due next month, and the new director, Patricia Quinn, will have been one year in the job shortly after that. So it seems like a good moment to reflect on some of those yawning gaps the council might focus its attention on.

Unless action is taken soon, the millennium will be reached without this country having a full-time, specialised contemporary music ensemble to serve the needs of that area of music about which the council beats its breast most often. It's a matter of wonder, too, that the council has been so neglectful of early music - no full-time ensemble for this, either - especially as, internationally, this has been one of the major growth areas in music in recent times. Indeed, it ought to be a matter of embarrassment that the council in fact funds no full-time chamber ensembles of any description.