Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I am considering the vacancies on the board of the Arts Council and hope to make an announcement in the immediate future. The remaining members of the board, whose terms expire in 2011, are sufficient to provide a quorum for the council and under the Arts Act 2003 the deputy chair can take the place of the chair until a new chair is appointed.

In appointing new members to the board cognisance needs to be had of the following provisions under the Arts Act 2003. Members of the Arts Council must have a special interest in or knowledge of the arts. The board must have a minimum of six men and six women; therefore the new appointments must be made up of a minimum of one man and five women and the chair can be either male or female. Persons aged 70 or over cannot be appointed to State boards. A range of all disciplines as per the Arts Act needs to be represented. The Act states that "arts" means any creative or interpretative expression, whether traditional or contemporary, in whatever form, and includes, in particular, visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture, and includes any medium when used for those purposes.

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