Recent reports of dissent and disarray within the Arts Council have been greatly exaggerated, according to its chairman and its director. Last week, following a meeting of the council, a brief statement was issued declaring all members' full support for their executive and for the implementation of a new arts plan, announced in July.

On Wednesday, the Arts Council's chairman, Brian Farrell, and its director, Patricia Quinn, spoke to The Irish Times about the changes their organisation is currently undergoing. They dispute the existence of dissent - disclosed by The Irish Times - within the council's Dublin headquarters.

According to Ms Quinn, "there are ongoing discussions both at staff level and with the different unions represented in the building" about the changing roles of those employed by the Arts Council. Dr Farrell adds that "staff development is ongoing". Both insist they have never heard any discussion about the possibility of industrial action being taken by members of the council staff and Ms Quinn says that when reports of a vote on such action appeared in the media early in October, "the staff were astonished as much as council members.

Similarly, in relation to suggestions that morale might be low within the council, Dr Farrell says if this were the case, "the production level is quite extraordinary for people who are supposed to be low. I've no reason to suppose there's any basis for this".

As for suggestions that her own style of management had perhaps led to problems with both members of staff and council, Ms Quinn takes a pragmatic approach: "To me, the sea change was the day last July when the Government said `you're going to get what you've asked for'. This was a much harder position to be in than before when we had to make do with very little money.

"Managing this new situation probably does require confronting hard questions that were not needed until now. It requires a style of managing our resources that's more hard-edged."

She clearly has the full backing of her chairman who says that in relation Ms Quinn's management of staff, "I certainly have no sense of people not being able to get on with things." However, Dr Farrell does agree that there were what he describes as "genuine communication difficulties" between the council and the executive. "There were some members very concerned and exercised about it," he says, explaining that when the present council was appointed, 15 of the 17 members - including himself - had no previous experience of the organisation.

"It was a virtually new council and we were on a fast learning curve."

The chairman obviously hopes that should such disagreements arise again, they might be aired within the council itself rather than via the media. The organisation's standing orders expect internal council business to be confidential and publicly discussed by authorised persons only.

This was not the case during October when minutes of the Arts Council's meetings were leaked on several occasions. Dr Farrell is clearly very unhappy that this should have happened. "If it were done by a member of the council, I can see no justification," he says.

`THE appropriate place for discussion is the council itself," he insists. "If it were a member of staff who was responsible, then there is plenty of machinery already, such as cross-management groups and internal meetings, where matters can be discussed."

"It's not a question of people feeling there's no opportunity for them to have their voice heard," Ms Quinn insists, "but for them to achieve whatever they wanted to achieve. It's disappointing that people used that method to achieve their agenda. Clearly they were promoting an agenda not in the best interests of the Arts Council."

Both chairman and director say they are happy with the way they publicly handled last month's disclosures, even though this tended to involve making little or no response to the media.

Ms Quinn says: "I may have had views on the questions being asked but it would be inappropriate to speculate on a range of matters being dealt with properly in-house. As a chief executive, my loyalty to the Arts Council is greater than to readers of The Irish Times."

Nor does either of them feel any necessity to engage in tactics which could counteract damage done to the council's image by recent controversies.

The council's director says that even before last month's problems arose her organisation had begun a complete analysis of its communications, pointing out: "This is not a reaction to what has happened."