The National Campaign for the Arts, which represents a sector with over 23,000 artists and cultural organisations across Ireland, has called on the Taoiseach and the Government to deliver on previous public commitments to increase arts funding.

In 2017, during the Fine Gael leadership election, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar promised to double arts funding over 7 years, i.e. by 2024. To date, there has been no clear detail on how this will be achieved. In April of this year, Varadkar suggested that the doubling of arts funding will be achieved through capital expenditure as opposed to increased funding for artists and arts programming.

You can’t have theatres without actors
Publishing its pre-budget submission for 2019, Angela Dorgan, newly appointed Chair of the NCFA, said:

It is now time for the Taoiseach and his party to provide a detailed road map on how and when his commitment to doubling arts funding by 2024 will be delivered. It is worth noting that we are now in the second year of that seven-year commitment, with no evidence of how it will be achieved. The NCFA is encouraged by the commitment of funding that An Taoiseach, Minister Madigan and the Government have made to the National Cultural Institutions in 2018 but would echo the Taoiseach’s sentiment that you can’t have theatres without actors.

The NCFA has also called on the Government to ensure that increased investment be allocated to the Arts Council in the main, so that funding is channelled to Ireland’s artists and those organisations who support them.

Dorgan continued:

The products of our artists and makers are integral aspects of our national identity, and are adopted by all sectors of Irish industry to frame the positive, dynamic and vibrant perception of Ireland and the Irish across the world…

We firmly believe that the Arts Council are best equipped to deliver to a sector starved of investment, most of whom are still funded at austerity levels. The NCFA note with much dismay that recent figures published by the Central Statistics Office show that while average earnings have increased by 15.7%, those in the arts, over the same period, have decreased by 3.5%.

The 2019 Government budget will be announced on 9 October 2018. Download the NCFA’s pre-budget submission below. For more, visit www.ncfa.ie.