Taoiseach admits the State failed to give arts attention it deserved

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has admitted the State has failed in the past to give the arts the support they deserve.

Mr Kenny said the Easter Rising commemorations this year have led to a new cultural revival in Ireland – a "revival that demands that we put arts and culture at the centre of public policy, in a way that, frankly, we have failed to do until now".

The Taoiseach will be the keynote speaker on the opening day of the national conference on the Easter Rising at NUI Galway, on Thursday.

He will speak on the theme of the conference “1916-2016, the Promise and Challenge of National Sovereignty” .

Speaking in advance, Mr Kenny said the Easter Rising commemorations had shown the State had a major role in sustaining the cultural life of the nation.

The State provided €48 million for the commemorations which the Taoiseach said was money well spent.

Cultural poverty

“We know this – but if 2016 has shown us anything it is that we can do a lot more for our society, for our people, by supporting and encouraging the widest possible active participation in the arts and in cultural activity generally, including history and heritage,” he said.

“We need to ensure that in our pursuit of economic riches we do not descend into cultural poverty. Cultural poverty corrodes democracy: we ignore cultural poverty at our peril.

“The enriching of the spirit was of course a core value of the revolutionary generation. The poets and playwrights, the revivalists and the writers, had a vision that was as much about cultural freedom as political independence.”

Overall spending on the arts in last month’s budget was down 16 per cent on the previous year as a result of the one-off spending on the commemorations.

In Budget 2017, the Arts Council of Ireland received an additional €5 million in its budget, an increase of 8 per cent. The Irish Film Board received an extra €2 million and Culture Ireland €1 million.

A further €5 million in funding was allocated for a Culture 2025/Ireland 2016 centenary programme legacy initiative. The details will be announced in December.

Fringe

However, the National Campaign for the Arts said the €48 million spent on the commemorations should have been fully retained for arts, film, culture and heritage for next year.

It has lobbied for a significant increase in arts funding – from the current 0.1 per cent of GDP to the European average of 0.6 per cent.

More than 700 people will attend the three-day conference. Professor Roy Foster will speak about the promise of 1916 while Princeton University political scientist, Professor Philip Pettit, will discuss the theme of European republicanism.

Other speakers confirmed for the event include the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Louise Richardson, and the Director General of RTÉ, Dee Forbes. There is also a fringe programme.