Fiach MacConghail (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----is in paralysis around how to approach the commemoration. Despite this, €4 million has been aside for it with no increase in funding for the Arts Council, Culture Ireland or the national cultural institutions. The arts have been savagely and disproportionately cut over the past seven years to the tune of 37%, yet we have been told to wait our turn. We are waiting. Artists of significance are waiting for crumbs from this Government to support them, this Government which is eviscerating and demolishing the National Cultural Institutions Act 1997 through so-called mergers, yet not a single increase has been set aside for any of the institutions I mentioned. When the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht speaks about protecting funding, the assumption is that the cuts that have occurred in previous years have been proportionate to other areas in our economy, but they have not been. Many artists living below the poverty line are experiencing devastation and the Government has not backed up its commitment to support the arts.

The increase of €4 million is not protecting the arts but is putting a slush fund into a vacuous and woolly idea regarding commemoration about which we know nothing. Moreover, the Arts Council, which is a primary funding source for individual artists, never mind arts organisations, is on a standstill for next year, having had its funding sliced by 37% over previous years. I am sorry and it is churlish for me to acknowledge this but it is important and factual to state that when it comes to supporting the arts, the present Government is the worst since the foundation of the State.