Ministers praised for growing number of theatres

The chief executive of the ESB, Mr Pádraig McManus, has said it was "to the credit of successive ministers for the arts that generous capital resources were allocated to provide a network of arts buildings where none previously existed" throughout the State.

"One could not but be conscious of the growing numbers of theatres and arts centres opening up in recent years", even in small towns and villages.

Yet appreciating that building and maintaining such infrastructure could pose difficulties in terms of future funding and sufficient touring product, he was sure it was "not beyond the ingenuity of the Department and the Arts Council to tackle and solve the problem".

Mr McManus was speaking at The Irish Times/ESB Irish Theatre Awards ceremony in Dublin on Sunday night.

He said he was "prepared to bet that never before have as many as 23 companies been nominated" for the awards.

"Clearly there is a greater energy - a word close to my heart - in Irish theatre today. And it is good to record that, for the first time, a production in the Irish language has won a nomination."

He also remarked that 2002 "was certainly a dramatic year for The Irish Times". He knew that everyone who valued balanced journalism, and in particular fair and extensive arts coverage, was delighted "the lively lady of D'Olier Street has weathered the storm and now faces an assured future under its first woman editor".

Mr Gerry Smyth, managing editor at The Irish Times, welcomed Mr McManus as the new chief executive of the ESB. He said it was the sixth time the newspaper and the company co-sponsored the awards. "We do so with a great sense of satisfaction that we have managed to firmly establish and create the longest-serving awards scheme for the Irish stage."

Addressing the issue of funding cuts in the arts, he said while The Irish Times had "a duty to report and comment on this matter of shared concern", at the same event last year, "in the midst of the paper's own internal cutbacks and reorganisation, a commitment was given that we were not about to abandon or downgrade its long-standing tradition of coverage from the arts arena".

He said that promise had been kept, and had been "well fulfilled in the context of the recent debate on funding issues and their implications".

However, while people in the media liked to imagine they had great influence "it really comes down to those of you in the front line....saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done to safeguard the future of the performing arts in Ireland" .

He thanked judges Ms Karen Fricker, Ms Maureen Kennelly and Mr Brian Singleton for the diligence, commitment and passion they brought to a labour of love, and Mr Tony Ó Dálaigh for helping adjudicate the opera category.

He also thanked RTÉ for its contribution in bringing the event to a wider audience.

The chairwoman of the judges, Ms Fricker, said that of the "over 120 productions" she had seen during 2002, "a full half were works of new Irish writing, a quite amazing statistic - 60 new Irish plays". She said such theatrical vitality was underpinned by Government support. Virtually every production nominated was "the product of a company supported by the Arts Councils, North and South". Government support of the arts resulted in "a vital artistic culture".

Thanking her fellow judges and the awards' sponsors, she said that "given the challenging phase that The Irish Times has been moving through in recent years, I think we all worried whether these awards would survive, and tonight I would like to single out the persistence and passion of Gerry Smyth in keeping them alive".