THE allocation to the Arts Council in the Budget represents a cut of £100,000 on its allocation in the Book of Estimates. The new figure, after what is described in the Department of Finance statement as a minor adjustment, is £18.4 m £1 million of this sum being accounted for by a capital grant. This represents an increase of nearly 13 per cent on last year's Arts Council grant.
This is, however, a shortfall of more than £3 million on the figure agreed as necessary to implement the Arts Council's Three Year Plan 1995 1997, the strategic objectives of which were adopted by Government in November. This makes an aggregate shortfall of £6 million, including last year's figures. After the Book of Estimates was published, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, suggested to the Arts Council that the plan should run over five years instead of three, and this was accepted by the council.
Mr Colm O Briain, cultural adviser to Mr Higgins, said the £100,000 cut was "regrettable", but relatively small.
"The Arts Council is pleased to receive a substantial increase of 12.9 per cent," Mr Adrian Munnelly, director of the Arts Council, said yesterday. "We recognise that the Minister has had difficulty finding funds." Dr Ciaran Benson, chairman of the Arts Council, said "I'd prefer the £100,000 to be there, but overall the grant is an indication of support and that's very important in the arts world."
M Garry Hynes, consultant artistic director of Galway's Druid Theatre Company, said that her immediate and unconsidered response" was "We are increasingly moving away from what the arts were promised in the three year plan".
Mr Fiach Mac Conghail, artistic director of the Project Arts Centre, said £100,000 could do about three theatre productions or provide 10 or 12 bursaries to artists, if you looked at it in a micro sense. "But in a macro sense, I'm content."