Who will write the next Arts Plan? The new Arts Council, surely. But considering a new Council still hasn't been appointed, won't sit in July and August unless it breaks a long-established tradition, and the plan is meant to be ready by the end of the year, its members will have to move at the speed of actors on a silent movie screen to get it done.

Meanwhile, two processes of evaluation are going on. The Arts Council's second "national consultative forum" is on Friday week, June 19th, at the University of Limerick - to book, contact Genevieve Taylor at the Arts Council on 01-6180250. The Coopers and Lybrand/Indecon assessment of the current plan, commissioned by the Minister, will include recommendations for the new plan. The Minister's media adviser, Michael Ronayne, said yesterday that when the two processes are complete a "skeletal arts plan" will exist and the new Council will only have to "fill it out".

How management and economic evaluation agencies like Coopers and Lybrand and Indecon can adequately quantify the success of a document as nebulous and as aspirational as the Arts Plan 1995-97, is debatable. Coopers and Lybrand says that it has huge experience in evaluating the arts: in 1992, it

prepared a report on the film industry; in 1994, a report on the economic impact of the arts; and in 1996, a report on the publishing industry. But surely the difference between these reports and the report now required is stark?

Coopers and Lybrand is also engaging in a process of public consultation, which begins on Saturday at the West County Hotel in Ennis at 4 p.m. The other meetings are on Monday at the Hyland Central Hotel, Donegal, at 7 p.m.; on Tuesday at the Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan, at 7 p.m.; on June 23rd at the Traveller's Friend Hotel in Castlebar at 7 p.m.; at July 2nd at the Abberley Court Hotel, Tallaght, at 7 p.m.; in Athlone at the Prince of Wales Hotel, Athlone, at 7 p.m.; and the Metropole Hotel, Cork, at 7 p.m.