Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department has no role in the management or the operation of any art centre or in providing current funding to arts centres. Many such centres are owned by, and some are managed by, the relevant local authority. Most receive some or all of their operational funding from the local authorities. The Arts Council also has a role in that it provides programming funding in respect of many arts centres.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Arts Council is the principal agency through which State funding is channelled to the arts. Government policy on the arts is set out in the programme for Government. While the Arts Council receives its overall funding allocation from my Department, decisions on the expenditure of those funds are a matter for the Arts Council itself. Under the Arts Act 2003, the Arts Council is statutorily independent in its day-to-day operations and I am precluded by law from intervening in the council's decisions on funding. The allocation to the Arts Council in 2013 is €60.7 million.

In any case, arts centres are independent organisations and matters to which the Deputy refers, such as financial planning and-or oversight difficulties, are first and foremost a matter for the board of the relevant arts centre.

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