The artistic community is failing in its duty by not questioning issues which negatively affect the way people live, Mr John Gormley, the Green Party TD said yesterday.
Writers operated by supporting any politician who would agree to give them money, and getting money was uppermost in their minds at all times, Mr Gormley claimed in his address to the Humbert Summer School in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
"There are an awful lot of young trendies about now who are working on scripts and not on plays or novels any more. If you address them on politics they have no interest whatsoever," he said.
Irish writers at one time might have been portrayed as "drunken bowsies up in McDaid's pub with a novel in the drawer but who are nowadays people aspiring to be like Quentin Tarantino rather than James Joyce", he said.
Mr Gormley added that while politicians on the left might be expected to address questionable issues, he contended that the left was dead in Irish politics, especially since the merger of Democratic Left and Labour.
"This leaves a gap and there is, I believe, an opportunity for the artistic community to address this, but they haven't so far and I don't hold my breath that they will," he said.
He said it was not true, for example, to say that Irish people lived in the cleanest environment in the world, and yet this view was promulgated everywhere.
"We are in a sense living in denial. Anyone who has the temerity to question the Celtic Tiger is shot down immediately. The truth is that as growth increases, our quality of life decreases. Crime levels are rising, commuting times to work are increasing.
"I still hanker after the dissident voices because I believe we are now living in a culture of silence and acquiescence.
"I believe that artists have a status in society and have been given a platform that they can use but they choose not to. We're not getting any political commentary or analysis from this sector of society because too many artists are busy looking over their shoulders and this is leading to a dampening down of any discourse in our society," he said.
Mr John Coll, arts officer with Mayo County Council, said he was disappointed with such a negative view of creative people. "I would have to say, however, it is true that if you give us the money we will know what to do with it," he said.