The Abbey Theatre got another financial lift yesterday with the news that it is to receive €25.7 million over the next three years from the Arts Council.
This is the largest grant ever made by the council and comes after the theatre's accumulated debts were cleared in December. It is the first time the National Theatre has received three-year funding.
The commitment of €25.7 million in revenue funding is the first of this year's revenue grant decisions to be announced and is to fund the theatre's programme until 2008.
Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden said last night the three-year arrangement with the theatre should allow the Abbey to progress with its core function of providing "the highest quality theatre as an expression of national artistic vibrancy".
The Abbey grant represents an increase of about 43 per cent for this year. Last year the theatre's funding grant was €5,050,000. Of the overall figure announced yesterday, €7.2 million is for 2006, €8.5 million for 2007 and €10 million for 2008.
The theatre had submitted a three-year plan to the council, with a price tag of €28.9 million.
Abbey Theatre director Fiach Mac Conghail welcomed the commitment as "a substantial endorsement of the artistic policy and the change process within the organisation".
He thanked the council for their vision and support of the Abbey.
"This global figure will help us to consolidate our programming initiatives over the next three years. It is a radical move that will facilitate better planning and help us work more effectively with Irish and international theatre artists."
The news follows the award of €4 million to the theatre in December by Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue, via the Arts Council, to clear the theatre's accumulated debts.
The building of the new Abbey at George's Dock is to be a public-private partnership and will involve an international design competition, the Minister has also said.
There will be some interest in the fact that the Abbey has managed to make a case to secure three-year funding. The council's multi-annual funding of some large arts clients was abandoned a couple of years ago as it was not possible to secure Government funding to underpin it.
The Abbey is restructuring itself internally and has reorganised its financial management and corporate governance following last year's financial crisis.
The announcement of the new board of the Abbey is expected at the end of this month, or early February.
Ms Braiden said the unprecedented level of funding going to the National Theatre was because the Abbey has exceptional issues.
"This funding is to enable the organisation to reclaim the ground lost over recent years," she said.
The decision is the first of the Arts Council's revenue grant decisions for 2006 to be made public. Other applicants will be notified tomorrow, and decisions will be posted on the council's website on Friday.
The council received 435 revenue funding applications for this year and will award 325 grants totalling €51 million - up from €44 million last year.