Appointing an Arts Council is the most public expression of opinion and ideology that a Minister for the Arts can make. Ms Sile de Valera's particular interests have been hard to discern during her year of office; she has now nailed her colours to the mast.
The appointment of Prof Brian Farrell as chairman of the council is a surprise. He has never been associated with the arts in the public mind, although as an RTÉ broadcaster he has probably had more chance than anyone else to display his skills as a chairman.
The outgoing chairman, Dr Ciaran Benson, is a fellow UCD academic, but at the time of his appointment he was strongly associated with the arts, particularly as the author of the Art And The Ordinary report on access to the arts.
Prof Farrell will need to show his arts expertise quickly to convince the arts community of his seriousness, particularly as many in this community are beginning to lament the passing of the era of Michael D. Higgins and Mr Benson and are seeing this as the end of a golden age.
Convincing the arts community that the de Valera/Farrell era will equal this is all the more urgent given that, unlike Mr Higgins, who had the services of the able Mr Colm Ó Briain as cultural adviser, Ms de Valera has no special adviser on policy on her staff. She recently appointed an RTÉ broadcaster, Mr Michael Ronayne, but his post is that of media adviser.
One of the new Arts Council members, Ms Emer O'Kelly, is another RTÉ broadcaster, but the aspect of her career which is likely to cause comment is the fact that she is a practising theatre critic - she writes for the Sunday Independent. Ms O'Kelly said yesterday that there was no conflict of interest, that she would be sitting on the council as Emer O'Kelly, not as a Sunday Independent writer.
The appointment of Ms Jane Gogan, the film producer, is another surprise. Ms Gogan has recently been made commissioning editor for TV3, which is due to go on air in the autumn, and has just been appointed to the Minister's think-tank on film. It is difficult to see how she can juggle these many roles.
It is heartening that eight of the members of the new council are women and that there is a much higher level of Irish-language skills than on previous councils.
The appointment of Mr Noel Crowley, the Clare County Librarian, who established a local studies group through Ennis Library and is director of Ennis Civic Trust and PRO and treasurer of the Ennis Tidy Towns Committee, will inevitably be a popular choice in the Minister's Clare constituency.
Ms Úna Ó Murchu's appointment could be seen as giving further sustenance to the grassroots. She is Clare-born, but is now artistic director of the Bru Boru Theatre and Performing Group, which is connected to Comhaltas Ceolteoiri Éireann, a conservative body for the promotion of traditional music and dance.
Among other new members of the council are: Ms Mary Brady, artistic director of the Firkin Crane Dance Development Age ncy in Cork, who has valiantly fought official indifference to dance for years; Befast-based Mr Ciaran Carson, an acclaimed poet and traditional musician, who provides a much-needed link with Northern Ireland; composer Ms Jane O'Leary, a tireless campaigner for new music and for music in the west; and Mr Brendan Flynn, co-founder of Clifden Arts Week, whose passion for the arts is keen and articulate.
It is not usual for Arts Council members to be appointed for a second term, and only two members of the outgoing council have been reappointed, Mr Paul McGuinness and Mr Proinsias Mac Aonghusa.
But no matter how well this Arts Council works, it faces extreme difficulties. The council staff is at present engaged in its own assessment of the previous Arts Council's Arts Plan, which runs out at the end of this year.
Meanwhile, the Minister has commissioned Coopers and Lybrand/Indecon to assess how well the £81 million which funded the plan was spent. These processes will not be completed until the end of the summer, but the Arts Council's director, Ms Patricia Quinn, aims to present the Minister with a new Arts Plan before the end of the year.
The new chairman intends to break with tradition and hold Arts Council meetings during the summer, but he admitted yesterday that he has not yet attempted to "get on top of the brief". Other new council members were unsure how often they would be meeting and what would be required of them.
How the new council can be expected to produce the new plan in a few months is puzzling. The members are by definition busy, successful people, who are offering their services to the council free.
Could it be that the size and complexity of the arts sector now means that the full-time council staff will inevitably take on more and more responsibility for the direction of arts policy?
Could it be, in fact, that the idealistic, democratic idea of a committed, amateur Arts Council is no longer practical?