Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 April 2012
722 Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will provide details of the groups in County Donegal whose funding was cut by the Arts Council; and if he will outline the amount their funding has been cut over the past five years. [19441/12]
View answerThe Deputy will be aware that the Arts Council is a statutory body under the Arts Act 2003 and is funded by my Department via a grant-in-aid. Under that Act, the Council is independent in its funding decisions and I, as Minister, am precluded from any involvement, either in decisions regarding which organisations it funds, or the amount of any such funding.
Details of the Arts Council's funding decisions are, however, available on its website at www.artscouncil.ie, as are the criteria for applications and the names of the decision-making panels. Details of successful applications in respect of the years 2009 and 2010 are available in the Council’s Annual Reports for those years, which are also available online.
While the Council's 2012 allocation of €63.241 million represented some reduction on its 2011 allocation, I am confident that this funding will allow it to maximise its continuing support for the arts.
