Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A Dáil debate would of course be useful. I agree with Deputy Bacik that if we had committees established - and I hope we will very shortly - I am sure there would be very serious questions asked of the Arts Council. Breaching the public spending code cannot be a consequence-free zone. It simply cannot. These issues are, quite frankly, absolutely alarming. People can make mistakes in terms of the delivery of projects. That is one thing, but it is very different when you just ignore the public spending code and the various approval processes.

There are very serious questions for the Arts Council to answer. In fairness to my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, he has only been in the Department a couple of weeks. I believe he has acted very swiftly. He briefed Cabinet on the matter yesterday and has commissioned a full external review of the governance and culture at the Arts Council, which Deputy Bacik has welcomed. I absolutely assure the Deputy that no one is happy with what has gone on here. When taxpayers' money is given to the Arts Council, it is for the exact reasons the Deputy has said. It is to support the many brilliant artists and artistic endeavours right across our country. We do not expect it to be spent on a computer system that does not work and we do not expect millions of taxpayers' money to be wasted, with nothing to show for it. There are extraordinarily serious questions for the Arts Council. I have no doubt that as well as the review the Minister has initiated, it is important when the new public accounts committee is established, it will look at this. Looking at the table of the companies involved in this project, at least 20 are listed. It is spreadsheet after spreadsheet. People made significant amounts of money and profited from this, but we do not have a computer system.

I have a very simple philosophy. When we pay someone to manage and run an agency, we expect them to run it properly and in line with the public spending code. There are very serious issues that we already know of. The project cost was not properly estimated by the Arts Council and nor was any final estimate, as is required under the public spending code. Between 2021 and 2024, the Arts Council approved an additional money for the project without approval from the Department, as is also required under the public spending code. The Arts Council frequently changed and extended contracts with certain external suppliers, going over the allowed limits for cost increases in several cases. These actions likely contravene public procurement procedures. In addition, exceeding prescribed contract value limits without retendering breaches EU procurement rules on substantial modifications to contracts. The Arts Council also failed to report these breaches in the chair's letter to the Minister, as required under the code of practice for the governance of State bodies.

Let us be honest. The Arts Council has responsibility for a very sizeable budget which has significantly increased objectively in recent years. There are also issues with regard to the Department's oversight of the Arts Council ,and I do not shirk away from that either. That also has to be a part of the review.

See this speech in context