Ms Orlaith McBride:

We have been in discussions with the Abbey Theatre over the past number of months. We have agreed a template to a memorandum of understanding for each of the co-productions being staged at the Abbey, or in association with it, in order that there is no duplication of funding for activities that may have been supported by the Arts Council in other ways.

Back in 2017, we would have liked to have offered the Abbey a three-year funding commitment for 2018, 2019 and 2020 but we did not feel we had the information we needed on the artistic vision and the overall strategy for the coming years, so we only offered one-year funding. The information in question has now been provided so we have offered a two-year funding envelope and, as the issues are resolved, we hope that we can go back to the normal rhythm of three-year funding agreements to allow the Abbey Theatre to plan in the most effective way.