The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr John O'Donoghue, yesterday pledged to address cutbacks in arts funding at Cabinet level.
Speaking at the offices of the Arts Council, where he launched their Annual Review for 2002, Mr O' Donoghue said that a number of recent meetings with groups and individuals from the arts sector had given him "a real and practical sense of the impact of the cutbacks".
While no sector was immune from the effects of economic downturn, he continued, "I will certainly advocate the case for funding the arts sector as effectively as possible in the Estimates for 2004".
"The Arts Council and the arts community," he later told The Irish Times, "can rely on me to fight my corner with the Minister for Finance to the level best of my ability."
This is the first time the council has published an annual review separately to the Annual Report for a given year. The Annual Report for 2002, which will contain details of awards and grants, as well as the audited reports of the Arts Council, will be published later in the year.
At the launch, the director of the Arts Council, Ms Patricia Quinn, described the new publication as the council's attempt "to report better and sooner".
She stressed that the publication, which describes exhibitions, performances and other artistic events in every county, contained "only a sample" of what the council had funded in 2002. However, she warned if recent cuts in State support for the arts were not redressed, there was a danger that the period reviewed by the publication could prove to have been "the high point for the arts in Ireland". In late 2002, Government funding of the arts fell by 8 per cent from €47m to €43m.
Todays Dáil debate on amendments to the Arts Bill 2002 is due to resume.
It provides the Minister for Arts with a role in arts policy formation but Mr O'Donoghue stressed the new legislation did not constitute a threat to the Arts Council's independence.
He added that he intended the Bill to be passed before the summer recess of the Oireachtas.