Standstill in spending

In a climate of public spending cuts, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland seemed to be getting jittery in recent months, on foot of apparently clear indications from the Department of Education that a stiff cut in their annual budget was on the way, particularly following the Arts Council cuts in England, Scotland and Wales, writes Mic Moroney. Part of the anxiety may have come from the perception that they might have been compensated by the staggering windfall of the Lottery money in recent years - in the region of £16 million since the pennies began falling from heaven in May 1995.

There must have been a considerable sigh of relief, then, when the news of a stand-still figure of £6.67 million was announced last week. By yesterday, the Northern Ireland Arts Council was ready to release its own allocations to client organisations. In the visual arts, the Belfast Print Workshop gets a rise of £8,000 to £75,000 and the Seacourt Print Workshop, a rise of £7,500 to £17,500. The Context Gallery in Derry gets a 50 per cent increase to £15,000, while Catalyst in Belfast gets a small £1,000 increase to £11,000.

In Literature, Blackstaff and the Verbal Arts Centre get a nice little hike, while Charlie Fitzgerald's Castleward Opera is up £5,000 to £35,000, and there are a few smaller increases in the community and development areas.

The Drama/Dance sector sees a consolidation of Tinderbox (up to £62,500) and Prime Cut (up to £60,000), while Big Telly must be whooping with delight at their almost threefold rise from £3,000 last year to £8,5000. Some of these funds may have been redistributed from the interesting cut to Dubbeljoint's grant (down from £77,000 to £62,000); or the cut from £20,000 to £10,000 in the provision for Irish Language Drama - apparently because over the last two years £24,000 worth of provision has not been spent.

Most interesting of all is the reported saving of £100,000 in administration costs, which have always been very high - in the region of one sixth of the overall budget.

But if one scours through the figures, one finds that the total administrative expenditure (£1,087,763) is cushioned by an "administrative recharge" from the Lottery of £152,063.