Arts Council chairwoman calls for €100m annual allocation

The Arts Council has told an Oireachtas committee that it needs exchequer funding in excess of €100 million if it is to continue to support arts organisations, projects and individuals around the country.

Funding for the Arts Council increased from €47.67 million in 2002 to €80 million in 2007, a 67 per cent increase, which was a "good increase but from a very low base", Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden told the Oireachtas Arts, Sport and Tourism Committee.

Funding had now exceeded €80 million a year, but more money was needed, Ms Braiden said. "The Arts Council will continue to work to achieve, as soon as is practicable, in excess of €100 million per annum as our allocation. Without this allocation, difficult decisions have had to be made and inevitably disappointments for some organisations and groups around the county."

Arts groups were often seeking double and triple the funding that the council was able to provide to them, she said.

Organisations which the council funded on a yearly basis, particularly larger arts bodies, were receiving less funding than the council had hoped to give them. The traditional arts were also in need of greater funding, she said. "The arts sector as a whole has never reached a sustainable level and until it does, it will never fully find its feet."

Mr Braiden said she realised that the State's finances were not as healthy as they had been but the additional money required would not compromise the economy. She said €20 million in the context of the overall national finances was tiny.