Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

If Mr. Falvey remembers, they got grants and it was written off as an error and so on.

Maureen Kennelly was the director of the Arts Council, and she was on radio and was very apologetic, and so on. The Minister came into the Dáil on 13 July to explain that. One of her suggestions to address this was that the Arts Council was updating its computerised grants system at the time and that would be going live in 2024. Given the problems that had been happening and, clearly, there was advice, was there any communication at that time? Frankly, this was a bit of a disaster for the Arts Council and particularly for the artists concerned. Clearly, the Minister had been told that the system would be going live in 2024 and she told the Dáil that at the time. Were any concerns raised at that stage about the computerised system?