Government says it is trying to keep cultural institutions open

The Government is trying to keep the major national cultural institutions open, Minister for the Arts Jimmy Deenihan told the Dáil. "For example, the National Museum is under considerable pressure as are the National Library and the other cultural institutions,'' he said. "It was with regret that I had to reduce funding to an extent that I did not have to do in the previous two years when I protected its funding as much as possible.''

Mr Deenihan said the reduction in funding for the Arts Council was €3.967 million. For the past two years, he had he had done his best to cushion the reduction, keeping it well below what was expected, but he could not do that this year because there was major pressure from the cultural institutions.

Artists, he added, would benefit and he had secured €6 million for Limerick city of culture. “A large number of artists who would normally get funding through the Arts Council will benefit from this,’’ he said.

Mr Deenihan said he hoped that from next year he would be able to have less of a reduction in funding. “In the meantime, I hope the Arts Council will be able to fund its organisations,’’ he added. “It was expected that there would be a 6 per cent reduction because that was in the framework, but I hope it will be able to make economies and live within the budget.’’

Fianna Fáil spokesman Seán Ó Fearghaíl complimented the Minister on getting funding from the sale of the national lottery. He said the National Campaign for the Arts believed arts programmes would be affected rather than the costs of administration.