You might not think it's the time of year for serious thought and evaluation, but you would be wrong, because the Indecon/Coopers and Lybrand report on the Arts Council's Arts Plan, which the Minister commissioned, has now been made available to her. She will present it to Cabinet, and to the Arts Council, and only then will it be available to the public. A Department spokesman says this will still be "by the end of the year."

The report is being circulated two to three months later than had been anticipated - Alan Gray of Indecon says that the timeframe envisaged was unrealistic, and that there was more consultation than was planned for - and it will have to be digested by the Council before they come out with a new Arts Plan. So, as predicted here regularly, the new Arts Plan will not appear by the end of the year - "the Spring" is now the expected landing date. The life-span of the "old" Arts Plan runs out at the end of this year, and it is disappointing that they can't be made to dovetail - though, in fairness, given that the election of the Arts Council is a political affair, and, unlike the election of boards of many other bodies with such huge responsibility, it happens in one fell swoop, it is far from surprising.