THE Government Estimates are qualified good news for the arts. The upside includes a further £2.4 million for the Arts Council, bringing its annual grant to £20.8 million, twice what it was when Michael D. Higgins first became Minister.

The Film Board gets a 12 per cent increase, the National Gallery 13 per cent, and there appear to be significant increases for other major cultural institutions, like the NCH and IMMA though these have not yet been allocated on an individual basis. It is puzzling that the aggregate grant for the National Library Museum and Archives (also still to be individually allocated) is only up three per cent. Capital grants to cultural projects a funding line controlled directly by the Minister, has risen from £4.4 to £8.7 million, an increase of 94 per cent.

No can deny that all this is a vast and welcome improvement on the miserable state of arts funding prior to the appointment of Mr Higgins, and great credit is due to him and his Department for achieving it.

The downside, of course, is that, in the case of Arts Council funding, it falls far short (£12 million short since 1995 to be precise) of the targets set in The Arts Plan 1995-1997.

The new director of the Arts Council, Patricia Quinn, in her statement welcoming the increase, added significantly, that the council was "somewhat disappointed that it is not higher and that we must continue to move at a slower pace than was originally envisaged". That disappointment is widely shared, though few people may express it as clearly in the criticism resistant climate which currently pervades public cultural life.

Ms Quinn, however, also says that "the council is particularly pleased at the announcement of significant percentage increases over the coming two years, reflecting the absolute commitment of Government to the full funding of The Arts Plan by the year 1999."