Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being here for the presentation. I am intrigued by the value-for-money audit principle. I can understand how Departments want to have value-for-money audits in the arts. However, I have concerns about that type of language. It is very good that the value-for-money audit has shown that the Arts Council offers value for money and operates very efficiently. As someone who worked in an area where one had to account for the State moneys being spent, I get a sense that it is possible to over-commodify the arts.

The value for money audit suits the good administrators in the organisations, it does not necessarily suit those who are doing the best art. That is one of my concerns in this area. I do not know whether the witnesses have any views on that. I am also interested in hearing a little more about how one maximises the socio-economic value of the arts. There is a sense, in particular in the arts community, that the funding regime in the past has always favoured the big arts organisations and the institutional arts. It has almost led to a corporatisation of the arts. That is felt very much among artists on the ground. The question is whether in a value for money audit one is favouring those organisations again. Many people find that what one gets from the arts then is a kind of middle of the road, bums on seats mentality to filling the theatres or exhibition spaces that plays to the common ground but turns the arts more into entertainment than arts. One is clocking up the numbers. It is like on television when one has certain soap operas that appeal to more people so one gets bigger numbers watching them but one could ask if they compare from an arts perspective. Would the Arts Council have commissioned Samuel Beckett, W. B. Yeats or others to write some of the plays or poetry they wrote? They were not mainstream or middle of the road. They were a little bit left or right of centre. I would welcome the thoughts of the witnesses in that regard.

We have a lot of quantitative evidence. I did a degree in commerce, followed by marketing. One has the quantitative and the qualitative evidence. How are we measuring the qualitative value of the arts to communities and how are we getting into communities in rural areas, to which Deputy Mulherin referred?

I commend the Arts Council on its collaboration with Ealaín na Gaeltachta. As someone who comes from a Gaeltacht area and is an Irish speaker, I think the value for money that is got from that collaboration with Údarás na Gaeltachta is fantastic. The level of arts that has been experienced in Gaeltacht areas from very small levels of funding has been incredible and it has increased the vibrancy of the arts in the Gaeltacht areas and that is important. On the other hand, I am very disappointed that most of the national institutions have relinquished their obligation to do anything in the Irish language. A number of national institutions would say they do not see any value for money in doing Irish language productions, for example. I do not agree with that. I heard an interesting radio debate recently in which the point was made that the Abbey Theatre, for example, has not done any Irish language production in recent years. Senator Mac Conghail will have views on the matter. That is disappointing