Madam, – Fred Johnston’s letter of December 23rd on arts funding contains a number of inaccuracies in respect of Aosdána. Only 133 of the 235 members of Aosdána receive the cnuas or annuity designed to guarantee those artists a modest annual income so they can concentrate full-time on their creative work. Eligibility is means-tested and is for a fixed, renewable period.
The level of the cnuas, which had been static for many years, was raised this year to €14,180 a year and there is a commitment to increase it on a phased basis to €20,000 by 2011.
As these figures demonstrate, nobody gets rich by virtue of the cnuas. Instead, artists of acknowledged achievement are enabled to do what they do best – make art – and Irish society is enriched by this enlightened provision and by the work which it facilitates. – Yours, etc,