Professor Dervil Jordan:

To my knowledge we are not always included. For example, the Arts Council has a participation strand of policy and we are not listed under that but we are funded under it. It has a supporting artists strand of policy whereas the festival supports older artists. We are not listed. It is about being explicit about the need to support the live course. If younger people are picked out we feel that older people should be picked out too in terms of policy support. That leads to the need for stable funding. Every year we must make a separate application to the Arts Council. We are very appreciative of its support but it is annual. We have little stability and little forward planning is possible. It is a 12 month turnaround and we usually do not know what funding we have until January, sometimes December, and it happens in May. It is difficult. The policy and the funding are definitely connected.