Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I have informed the Arts Council that I will continue to pursue its interest in multi-annual funding. This should not distract the council from being able to anticipate a fairly strong level of funding and to be accurate in anticipating what that funding will be. If it considers the funding for recent years, it will be in a good position to calculate what the annual figures should be. I accept this does not work because the council needs to be able to make legal commitments. I have sympathy for the case and I will continue to pursue the matter and discuss it with my colleague, the Minister for Finance. However, it should not distract the Arts Council from its work, given that it has a fairly high level of funding which it is well able to calculate.

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