Máirín Quill
Question:15 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the discussions, if any, he has had with the Arts Council since the recent budget regarding the implementation of the Arts Plan 1995-1997. [3243/96]
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Arts Plan.
My success in securing a funding level of £18.4 million for An Chomhairle Ealaíon for 1996 — an increase of some 13 per cent on the 1995 allocation and of almost 81 per cent on the allocation for 1992, the year before I assumed responsibility for An Chomhairle's funding — is a clear indication of my commitment to the long-term development of the arts in Ireland.
The Deputy will be aware that the figure proposed by An Chomhairle Ealaíon for 1996 in the Arts Plan 1995-1997 was £21.789 million. In the context of the funding secured by me for 1996, I raised with an chomhairle the question of whether its three-year plan could be extended to five years without compromising the strategic objectives of the plan. I am pleased to inform the Deputy that at its meeting on 18 January last an chomhairle decided to redesignate the arts plan to cover the five year period 1995-99. It is my objective to secure the funding targets in the original plan over the redesignated period.
I understood that the decision to extend the period of the plan from three to five years was made in the context of the 1995 budget. Does the Minister accept that we started off in 1995 with a three-year plan, a promised budget of £19.5 million and high hopes in our hearts but that by the end of the year there was a reduction of more than £3 million in the promised budget and the timeframe for the plan was extended from three to five years? In the context of the 1996 budget, does the Minister accept that there has been a reduction of £3.4 million in the promised allocation for year two of the plan? How can that reduction be accommodated without extending further the timeframe of the plan or abandoning key elements of it?
I know the Deputy is deeply interested in the arts plan which has seven modules. The Arts Council has concluded that the timeframe can be extended from three to five years without impacting on the integrity of the plan or the different modules within it. I want to be as straight in my remarks as the Deputy. When I inherited responsibility for this wide area less than three years ago it was something of a desert. The allocation at that time was £10.1 million while today it is £18.4 million. Regardless of the way one calculates the figures, that is an 84 per cent increase. When I agreed to be a partner with the Arts Council and other groups in the publication of the arts plan I knew I was setting out targets which would be regularly revisited in the House. The figure for the end of the plan is £26 million. I am satisfied that the plan will roll on without any damage and that I will be able to deliver on the full plan for the figures given. If the Deputy used her very considerable influence on her party spokesperson on Finance to ensure he was not so virulent about the need to control public spending my prospects might be better.
The Minister has to fight for his Department, and we will support him in this.
I have done very well.
To put it simply, the figures do not add up.
They are different.
The cost of the plan was either grossly overestimated at its inception or there is a shortfall in the money.
Yes, there is.
How can the Minister say in truth that the people who propose to implement the plan can withstand cutbacks of £3 million in year one, £3.4 million in year two and unknown cutbacks in years three, four and five? How can the objectives set out in the plan be achieved if there are consistent cutbacks of that magnitude?
I am delighted to have the opportunity to explain the position to the Deputy. The plan is made up of a set of modules and the original funding of £26 million was for a three-year period. Depending on the allocation of funding across the extended five years, the projected allocations for one year following another will be different. The Arts Council examined the integrity of the seven modules and whether it would have to abandon certain elements. It is interested in rephasing aspects of different modules across the different time frame. I would have appreciated being able to run with the level of expenditure that would have delivered the plan within three years. I am deeply committed to the plan. Lest I might have misled anybody, I was wrong to say I was in the Department for three years. I was gone for just over four weeks and in that brief period funding for the Arts Council was slashed to the level of the previous year, and there was no talk of a plan.
The Minister is not getting the support of the Minister for Finance.
Will the Minister tell the House what elements of the arts plan will be long-fingered or abandoned as a result of the reduction in funding?
No part of the arts plan is abandoned, nor will parts of it be long-fingered. It will be restructured. The Deputy knows that one of my practices has been not to interfere with statutorily autonomous bodies, and if she wants to have a discussion with members of the Arts Council, she will find them very informative. What it all comes down to is that there was a very low base. There is now, historically the largest provision ever for the Arts Council, the largest provision ever in relation to the infrastructure to the cultural initiatives programme.
It is European money.
It is European money.
The Minister should not take the credit for it.
There is general support, but what there is in this barracking is the notion that it could not possibly happen in other than Fianna Fáil's time. It had its chance to do all it wanted to do for the arts, and I inherited the wilderness it left behind.
Ba mhaith liom rud amháin a rá. Tá sé thar a bheith míshásúil nár éirigh linn oiread agus ceist amháin Gaeltachta a thógáil inniu. Tá sé in am rud éigin a dhéanamh ionas nach n-éireoidh an cás seo arís. Beidh sé a sé nó a hocht seachtainí eile sul a mbeidh deis againn ceist na Gaeltachta a phlé agus níl sé sin sásúil ar chor ar bith.
Aontaím leis an Teachta go bhfuil sé míshásúil mar tá a lán oibre curtha isteach sna freagraí ar na ceisteanna as Gaeilge. Más féidir linn aon leasú a dhéanamh bheinn báúil dó. Tabharfaidh mé aon eolas is féidir liom a thabhairt dó idir seo agus an chéad uair eile a mbeimis ag freagairt ceisteanna.
Can my questions be retained on the Order Paper for the next day?
I am sure the Deputy will be accommodated in that respect, and likewise Deputy de Valera.
With regard to having questions on a Wednesday, I am aware they are done in rotation and that it is not the Minister's decision. Unfortunately we have had questions down on Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht on a Wednesday on at least the last three, if not the last four, occasions, and there is very little time to ask questions. Perhaps the Ceann Comhairle's office or the Minister could help in this regard.
If the Ceann Comhairle's office wishes to make any suggestion with regard to this matter, I agree with the Deputies because there is in this area a great deal of consensus and I am delighted to give as much information as I can.