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ARTSCAPE: WHO CAN PREDICT anything? Certainly not the Arts Council (AC), which has no idea what its budget will be next year.

And therefore none of its clients – theatre companies, musical ensembles, artists and festivals – knows what the next year holds on any front, and so cannot plan or commit to anything. In a bid to nail something down, it seems, the AC has offered a small level of investment to its clients for early next year: basically, companies which were funded this year have a commitment to State investment for the first quarter of 2010, at a level of just two-thirds of their present funding. There are all sorts of provisos indicating this shouldn’t be construed as signalling the AC will continue to fund companies after April. This is a holding operation: after the Budget, when the council knows its own funding, it will make final investment decisions for the cultural sector.