Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to deal with the three main points raised by the Deputy. The Arts Council supports and develops theatre in Ireland through grant funding, project awards and supports to individual artists, venues, publications and resource organisations. This year, for the very first time, we have provided €250,000 to amateur theatre, drama and musical societies in the budget. Such funding has not been provided for more than ten years. It will help new productions that have a gap in their Arts Council funding. The capital culture scheme that has been launched is a capital scheme for arts venues. It will enable them to expand and facilitate better projects into the future. I have closely monitored the situation at the Abbey Theatre since the letter was originally sent to me in January. I have been updated on all the discussions. Considerable progress has been made, but some issues still need to be sorted out. I will write to the Abbey Theatre, to the theatre practitioners and to the Writers Guild of Ireland to see if we can find a solution that is palatable for everybody.

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