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

The reduction in funding for the Arts Council is €3.967 million. For the past two years I did my best to cushion the reduction in the allocation for the Arts Council, keeping the reduction well below what it expected. I could not do that this year because there was major pressure from the national cultural institutions. At this stage we are trying to keep them open. For example, the National Museum is under considerable pressure as are the National Library and the other cultural institutions. It was with regret that I had to reduce funding to an extent that I did not have to do in the previous two years when I protected its funding as much as possible.

Artists will benefit and I thank the Deputy for acknowledging that I succeeded in getting €6 million for Limerick city of culture. A large number of artists who would normally get funding through the Arts Council will benefit from this. As there will be a large involvement from the arts community in Limerick city of culture, it will certainly help artists in various ways. I take the Deputy's point and from next year I hope we will be able to reduce the amount of reduction. In the meantime I hope the Arts Council will be able to fund its organisations. It was expecting a 6% reduction because that was in the framework, but I hope it will be able to make economies and live within the budget.

See this speech in context