Austria: No agency. The Cultural Division of the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Vienna and the Austrian Cultural Institutes abroad are in charge of promoting Austrian art outside Austria. The budget in 1994 was approximately IR£5 million, but has been less in subsequent years. The Federal Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts also has a role in promoting Austrian art abroad.

Belgium: No agency.

Britain: The British Council was set up in the 1930s. After the war it was formalised as a cultural and academic institution to promote British culture abroad and encourage links with other countries. It does not belong to a government ministry, because "cultural and academic relations should not he seen as political," says Harold Fish, director of the British Council in the Republic of Ireland. With representation in 109 offices worldwide,, the British Council has become something of a "lumbering and" expensive bureaucracy" says Mr Fish, one whose budget is, being "cut to the bone."

The British Council in the Republic of Ireland had a budget of close to stg£300,000 last year, which was spent on cultural and academic schemes that promoted links between Britain and Ireland. This included a grant to help the Royal Court production of Sebastian Barry's play, The Steward of Christendom, to travel to the Gate Theatre for an initial ten day run. With regard to the Cuirt festival of literature held in Galway earlier this year, the British Council gave a grant towards inviting the highly popular dub poet, Benjamin Zephaniah, to attend.

The British Council in Northern Ireland jointly funds, with the Northern Irish Arts Council, an international arts officer to promote the arts of Northern Ireland overseas.

Denmark: The Danish Cultural Institute is a self governing institution, whose aim is to spread information about Denmark through cultural exchange and co operation with other countries. Projects include lectures, exhibitions and concerts. The Cultural Institute has offices in Belgium, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Austria.

Finland: No agency. A cultural division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a yearly budget of about IR£500,000 to organise and administrate the export of Finnish culture abroad, such as the visit of the Finnish National Ballet to China. The division, which is made up of about 15 civil servants, about half of whom work abroad, relies chiefly on the pre existing Finnish diplomatic network for its overseas contacts.

France: The Association Francaise d'Action Artistique (AFAA) is an independent body established in 1922, with a network which operates via France's overseas cultural attache's: "It is not a huge body with offices everywhere," says Alexandre Defay, the French cultural attache in Ireland. The AFAA is based in the same building as the Department of Foreign Affairs in Paris, and exists "to inform all cultural attache's abroad about the latest developments in French culture," says M. Defay. It also. "funds and prepares" large overseas tours of French arts, practitioners. It ,has an annual budget of about IR£12 million, 95 per cent of which comes from the Department of Foreign Affairs and even boasts its own travel agency.

The AFAA employs a specialist in each different field of culture, each with his or her own budget. "They visit all the cultural events in France and go to all the international festivals," says M. Defay. The AFAA publishes a guide to arts sponsorship, as well as the World Guide to Host Facilities For Artists.

Germany: The Goethe Institute is modelled on the British Council and is government funded. "The money goes to our headquarters in Munich and is then distributed," says Barbara Ebert, programme administrator in the Goethe Institute in Ireland, which has a budget of approximately £20,000 per year, with extra funding available for special projects (the budget is larger for Institutes in centres like London and Paris). There are 150 Goethe Institutes in over 70 countries.

"It is an expensive organisation to run," says Ms Ebert. "That's probably why Ireland hasn't got one like it. We organise concerts, seminars, readings, exhibitions, workshops, .and vi siting theatre productions. When artists come from Germany to Ireland, we pay their travel expenses and a fee."

Greece: The Foundation for Hellenic Culture (which is ,under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Greece) has branches in London, New York, Odessa, Berlin, Paris and Alexandria. The London branch had a budget of £200,000 last year, according to its director, Dr Eugenie Richardson. She arranges Greek exhibitions, symposia, lectures and poetry evenings as well as grant aiding the visits of Greek theatre companies to Britain in the form of travel expenses and publicity.

Italy: There is no centralised agency in Italy, but a variety of regional organisations exist, such at the International Culture Foundation in Milan, which organises exchanges of an academic and cultural nature. In Ireland there is the Italian Cultural Institute which arranges for Italian artists and musicians to visit Ireland and supports publications which link Ireland and Italy.

Luxembourg: No agency.

The Netherlands: Dutch embassies have small budgets to promote Dutch culture abroad (the Dublin one has a budget of about IR£5,000). There are, also three Erasmus Houses in Jakarta, Paris and Rome which have budgets to subsidise Dutch cultural events abroad. The main source of income comes directly from the government departments dealing with Foreign Affairs and with Culture respectively.

Portugal: No agency.

Spain: The Instituto Cervantes is a semi autonomous institution within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was established in 1991 to promote the language and culture of the Spanish speaking countries, and now has 35 branches worldwide. The Dublin branch has an annual budget of about IR£32,000 to organise cultural activities including the large Miro exhibition which opened yesterday at the National Gallery.

Sweden: The Swedish Institute, was set up in 1945 and has an annual budget from the state of about £14.1 million. The director the board of the Institute are appointed by the government otherwise it is independent. The Institute's. brief includes the spreading of information about Swedish culture and the promotion of cultural exchange. Each year the Institute receives and replies to over 50,000 letters posted and faxed from all over the world; produces fact sheets, articles and other publications about Sweden in 20 different languages; handles 1,500 cultural exchanges; and organises Swedish exhibitions and public, appearances in other countries.