Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I do not accept what the Deputy said and she would not expect me to. There should not be any effect on organisations throughout the country. It has been made clear to the Arts Council that the administrative reduction of 3% in its budget should come from within its own staffing and administrative requirements, which are substantial. That might be difficult in these times but we all face those realities. In fairness, most of the people in the arts to whom I spoke said that in spite of the difficulties they are pleased the arts was not used as the whipping boy, so to speak, in terms of taking the brunt of overall Government reductions and that, by and large, in the overall scheme of things they have done fairly well.

Equally, I do not accept that the Arts Council cannot function at the moment. It has a quorum and the members should get on with their job instead of waiting around. It is important they continue to do their work. They have the capacity to do it and they should move forward.

It is an independent function of the Arts Council to allocate funding to whichever bodies they wish.

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