Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the value for money report and the review of arts policy. As public representatives, we tend to think that anything that involves spending taxpayers' money should never be divorced from the reality that, whether it is for the arts or anything else, somebody is paying for it. If one asks the ordinary person in a rural area where or how he or she had experienced the arts, he or she would probably answer that it was probably through the local authority. We have an excellent authority in County Mayo, from where I come, which delivers arts programming and events. Arts centres and venues have grown in recent years and that is what is real to people on the ground. It is probably their best opportunity to experience what the arts have to offer.

I am a board member of Ballina Arts Centre and Theatre and have been involved for perhaps 17 years. Arts venues are under an awful lot of pressure. Thankfully, we got a new theatre a few years ago, but most arts organisations are lurching from one year to the next and budgets and finance dominate discourse as people try to get the best value for money. The arts centres, venues and local authorities are experts on getting value for money. Of all the cuts to Arts Council funding in the past few years a disproportionate amount have fallen on arts organisations and local authorities around the country, compared to the big arts institutions centrally based in Dublin. I am not saying communities set the standard for the arts, but in their delivery there is an economic as well as a commercial and tourism side and we must think outside the box.

One of the greatest joys I have is to see communities enriched by the arts. It often takes people by surprise because we battle with the words "the arts" and many people who have no experience of them ask how they are relevant to them. It is almost that the arts are seen as an indulgence instead of something very important, a part of creating the rich tapestry of our society. As we will call these things our "heritage", there are many reasons we should invest. I would like to see a further outreach from our national institutions. They have the benefit of the focus they can bring and can uplift the activities already happening in communities.

A number of questions arise from the review of policy and the value for money analysis. More detail will come as we have these important debates. Who decides what is a balanced distribution of arts opportunities across the country?

I do not believe it exists at present. Is the Arts Council best placed to do this? Is there not a conflict of interests? If it is the Arts Council, why is that the case? There is another body in the arts office that should have an equal say in that. I would also like to see a democratic quotient included in the equation of how we decide on the balanced distribution of arts opportunities across the country. For whom do these arts opportunities exist? The litmus test for a good arts policy is how well it is reaching people. How do we counter the idea that the arts are for the elite or a privileged few who can access them?

Regarding the Arts Council supporting organisations to develop sustainable fund-raising strategies and programmes, is this realistic given that arts infrastructure in the country is relatively new? Most of these arts venues and organisations are struggling because of the disproportionate cuts they have experienced in the past five years. Some of them have had their entire funding eradicated. In light of the way the Arts Council was going in the past, I had a sense that there would be one venue or a centralisation of funding and that the local authority would be obliged to come up with funding. That is not on in my area because the council can barely get by with the funding it has for the arts notwithstanding that Mayo County Council supports the arts extremely well in very strategic ways.

These venues did not come about without input from the Arts Council in the first instance. Much of the delivery of arts venues has been organic in the sense that the need was identified within communities. Some communities might have had a great passion in a certain area of the arts, much of it from an amateur perspective. They engaged with professional artists and this is how these venues came into being. They should not be abandoned, they should be supported. They should be a key plank of how the Arts Council rolls out these balanced arts opportunities.

Is this the right time to be offloading and asking local authorities to come up with funding, if that is the Arts Council's intention? I suggest this should be a longer-term goal. Many of these organisations are on their knees and barely getting by. I am talking about arts venues throughout the country.