The Arts Council has finally completed the extended consultative process through which it canvassed the arts community for views about the new three-year arts plan, writes Michael Dervan. The sense of disgruntlement that was never far below the surface at the first large meeting in Malahide in May abated somewhat in Limerick in June, and seemed almost absent at 12 more tightly-focused sessions held in Dublin over the last fortnight.

During the final sector-specific sessions, the Arts Council presented its own understanding of the issues already represented to it and opened the door to re-consideration, amendments and additions. The invitation was taken up with gusto and, as Arts Council Director Patricia Quinn admitted, "There were shifts of emphasis which changed my mind about some things. A great weakness in the arts world has been its fragmentation. Lots of people with shared interests don't even know each other. The meetings have helped to identify sets of collective interest, and not just about Arts Council grants. We will try to capture that benefit in the plan by creating a forum for the development of key issues within artform sub-sectors." At the end of the month, the full Arts Council will reach policy decisions about the issues which have been identified. The review of the first arts plan will have to be digested and new proposals will have to be formed to prepare for dialogue with the Department of Arts & Heritage. The finished arts plan is unlikely to materialise before early in the New Year. At that stage the arts community will be in a better position to work out the long-term value of talking communally and at length to the Arts Council.