Harsh cuts across the artistic board

It's been a tough Budget for the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, with the Government continuing its blunt policy of recent years of cuts across the board.

The Department’s overall budget has been cut by 7 per cent to €246 million for 2014. Of this, €207 million is for current expenditure with €38 million in capital expenditure.

Arts, culture and film will get the lion's share, with €123 million. Of this, €56 million will go to the Arts Council (down from €59.9m last year) and €14 million will go the Irish Film Board (down from €14.3m). This is the sixth successive year of cuts at the Arts Council, which has seen its budget reduced by more than a third since 2008.

The department's remaining expenditure will be €45 million for heritage; €40 million for the Irish Language, the Gaeltacht and the Islands; and €38 million for North-South Co-Operation, which includes funding for two North-South bodies, Waterways Ireland and An Foras Teanga.

Some extra funding has been allocated to the arts world from the sale of the Lotto licence. This money will be spent on three projects. Limerick will get a boost to its National City of Culture programme for next year, with funding of €6 million. Projects commemorating the Decade of Centenaries 1912-1922 will also get €6 million, to include works at the GPO. And €5 million is to be spent on protected building renovation projects.

The National Gallery’s annual funding is €7.2m, down from €7.6m last year, and an additional €10m has been earmarked for the redevelopment of its Historic Wings from 2014 to 2016. A new fund of €500,000 has also been set up to launch the Government’s 20-Year Strategy for the Irish language.

The National Campaign for the Arts said it was “appalled by this substantial, shortsighted cut to the arts, which will further undermine the cultural life of all our citizens”. The NCFA also highlighted what it calls the “uneven nature” of cuts, which it says are focused on arts programmes rather than administration costs within the department.