THERE WAS a danger that the focus would be exclusively on the necessary retrenchments rather than on creative solutions to solve the economic crisis, Minister of State Martin Mansergh told the MacGill Summer School last night.
“As a society we became over-confident, and practically everyone in a position to speak with some authority, Government, Central Bank and International Monetary Fund included, completely underestimated the risks,” he said.
It was like the failure of the privileged class to anticipate the French Revolution.
Speaking on the topic The Economy, Culture and Creativity, he said “there was an impatience with restraints on making money”. Any close regulation, “either domestically or at EU level” was strongly resisted.
“The invincibility and superiority of the market was with many an article of faith. Today, the much despised and formerly redundant State and multinational organisations can barely cope with the flood of casualties from the sharpest economic contraction in 80 years,” Dr Mansergh said.
Director of the Abbey Theatre, Fiach Mac Conghail said that, over the last four years, he had been “continually mindful of the idea and the legacy of the Irish Republic and how the Abbey can and should still engage with it”.
“Four years ago, this was seen as almost an old-fashioned notion and I then started to use the word ‘citizen’, which raised even more eyebrows. I have committed the Abbey Theatre to supporting the role and place of the citizen in the Republic and how art and politics can and must engage with each other in Irish society.”
The economic crisis was “a brilliant opportunity to reassess the cultural, social, political and economic value of our republic and our culture”, he said.
In relation to the McCarthy report, which questioned the need for the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and suggested that the arts be reassigned to the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Mac Conghail asked Mr Mansergh “to keep the arts portfolio at the Cabinet table as part of a senior ministry”.
“Culture and creativity is not an optional extra but an elemental part of our society and is what distinguishes us from Ireland Inc,” Mr Mac Conghail said.
Dr Finbarr Bradley said contemporary Ireland was “badly in need of the driving vision that characterised the Irish Revival” in the late-19th and early 20th centuries.
“Ireland’s distinctive cultural resources have the potential to develop an economy full of innovative, creative and entrepreneurial vitality,” said Dr Bradley.
