Eyes are beadily fixed on post-bags around the country as arts organisations await the announcement of their grant allocations for the coming year. The end of January was the deadline given by the Arts Council, but that date having come and gone, festivals, organisations and arts centres have been in suspense, wondering which of their projects and plans will be able to come to fruition and whether they will be able to retain staff.

"We made every effort to meet that deadline," says the Arts Council's Artform Director, Dermot McLoughlin. "We apologise sincerely for the delay. Most organisations have received specific notification of revenue-grant decisions by now - we began posting them last week." Arts centres and local authorities have still to receive theirs, however, and may have to wait a further three weeks.

The Arts Council staff's volume of work has caused the delay: the preparation of the new Arts Plan (to be published in a few months' time) and the ongoing consultation process this entailed has over-stretched staff capacity, McLoughlin says. "We simply could not do it."