The Arts Council is insisting on a "comprehensive restructuring programme" in the Abbey Theatre as a condition to the provision of €2 million additional funding to the theatre announced before Christmas.
The council is seeking changes in work practices and a formal commitment from the board to replace the National Theatre Society Ltd with a new company.
In a strongly worded letter sent at the end of December to the chairwoman of the Abbey board, Ms Eithne Healy, the director of the Arts Council, Ms Mary Cloake, says the theatre's "crisis is exacerbated by structural and systemic problems arising from the Abbey's attempts to operate a national theatre for the 21st century with legal, governance and management structures which are in urgent need of modernisation and reform".
The council has set out a clear set of deadlines for the Abbey to implement change. It wants the theatre to come forward with a detailed plan by the end of this month, and by the end of March to have formally reformed its governance and corporate structures, as well as having in place agreement for staff and work practice changes. In a timeframe that identifies June 2005 as the date for the completion of all change, the company is required to have a new structure for management agreed by the end of April, followed by a recruitment process and a business plan by the end of June.
The letter indicates that the €2 million is only being made available "subject to establishing a specific bank account . . . with agreed mechanism for authorising drawdown".
The council also requires verification that the conditions are being met before money can be drawn, and that the Abbey board "will enter in to a process of negotiation with the Arts Council as to the detail of the new structure".
Only an agreed portion of the extra funding, which the council received from the Department of the Arts, can be used to reduce the theatre's deficit which, at the end of 2004, was around €2.5 million. The remainder, likely to be a significant amount of the €2 million, will go towards the costs of a programme of change in the theatre that includes a voluntary leaving scheme this year.
The council is demanding an account of the savings that will accrue from such a scheme, as well as investment in staff and public facilities in the venue and expert assistance in development of the change. It also suggests the need for an interim plan for the maintenance and improvement of the current building which is likely to be the theatre's home for some time after the recent breakdown in negotiations to acquire a city centre site for a new home for the Abbey.
The allocation of the €2 million funding followed a review late last year of the theatre's financial crisis and structures, on behalf of the council by arts consultant Ms Anne Bonnar. It is believed her recommendations form the basis of the Arts Council letter to the Abbey. A management plan, put forward when the extent of the crisis became public knowledge in September, included the loss of 30 out of 91 contract and permanent staff.