It is “absolutely alarming, quite frankly” that The Arts Council ignored the public spending code regarding work on an unsuccessful IT system, Tánaiste Simon Harris has said.
The Government has ordered an external review of governance and culture at the council following a finding by the Comptroller and Auditor General that €7 million was spent on an unsuccessful IT system.
Minister for the Arts Patrick O’Donovan said he was “desperately angry” about the waste of public monies.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said that he first heard of the problem two weeks ago and has initiated a process to get the the bottom of the issue.
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Harris said he was agreeable to the Labour Party’s proposal for Dáil debate on the matter, given what he described as the “extraordinarily serious questions” now facing The Arts Council.
He said there were also “series issues” regarding oversight which the department needed to answer, adding: “I don’t shirk from that.”
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He said the matter “should have been highlighted at an earlier stage” to the Government, but the department was trying to get “on top” of the issue.
He was replying to Labour leader Ivana Bacik, who suggested that Minister O’Donovan appears to have a “reverse midas touch” when it comes to controversies.
She told the Dáil there had been an “enormous waste of public money” at The Arts Council and the Government needed to get to the bottom of it.
She said any review needs to find out just what oversight the department had when a significant spend “resulted in northing”.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín told the Dáil that the council “incinerated” €7 million in State funding with nothing to show for it.
He also said the Government was shrugging its shoulders and saying it did not know what happened.
“It is the responsibility of the minister to know what is happening in their department, you cannot insulate yourself from crisis such as this by pleading ignorance over and over again,” he said.
“That is not an excuse in relation to waste.”
Deputy Tóibín also criticised the fact that Oireachtas committees are not yet up and running, meaning TDs did not have an opportunity to bring in former minister Catherine Martin to answer questions.
‘Cause of great concern’
Former Minister for the Arts and Culture Heather Humphreys, who served in the role from 2014-2017, said that the issues raised by the publication of the annual report from the Arts Council 2023 are a “cause of great concern.”
Ms Humphreys stated that in terms of costs, it “seems like a runaway train” and welcomed Minister O’Donovan’s action and announcement of an external review into culture and governance at the Arts Council.
“During my time, the Arts Council was an independent agency, they got their funding and then managed it themselves,” she explained.
Ms Humphreys said that “there was no ministerial interference in terms of funding, they got the money and that was that”.
‘Questions to be answered’ – arts campaign
The Chair of the National Campaign for the Arts welcomed the review and said the situation was a concern for the sector.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Maria Fleming described the sector as “one that works in financial precarity all the time”.
“A lot of artists and arts organisations are working in an area where they have a scarcity mentality from historical underfunding for years,” she said.
“We’ve seen brilliant progress in the last number of years in increased funding for the arts and we want to see that continue.”
Ms Fleming said that while there are “questions to be answered” she does not want this to distract from the “vital work of improving and supporting our arts sector”.
“We still do have trust in The Arts Council,” she added.
Speaking on the same programme, Director of the Performance Corporation Jo Mangan said she felt aggrieved that the delay in publishing the report could negatively impact the sector.
“I’m so disturbed that the opportunism and substandard work of contractors from outside our sector, who command really significant fees for their work, unlike us, is going to potentially be the cause of a downturn in a really important sector to the country,” Ms Mangan said.
“If you want to track each penny that’s spent in our sector, come to an arts organisation. Every single penny is signed off by an accountant before we receive our grant. That’s something that was put in place about ten years ago.”
Ms Mangan said an upgrade to the system for applications for The Arts Council funding would be welcome.
“It’s very unwieldy, you can’t access things after you upload them,” she explained.
“Once the shutters come down, the shutters come down. It’s a system we’ve been dealing with for about 15 years.”
