ACCORDING to the artistic director of the Abbey Theatre, Mr Patrick Mason, a new agreement on the status of the theatre has been reached between the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, the Arts Council and the National Theatre Society.
Mr Mason said the new agreement had been endorsed this week by the Department.
He said he understood it would soon also be endorsed by the Arts Council.
The agreement, he said, was the result of meetings between the parties since last autumn, which sought to clarify the relationship of the National Theatre Society to the two funding bodies.
The society has lobbied to be funded as a national institution by the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, which would give it a steadier funding situation than it has with the Arts Council, where it must compete for funding yearly with other theatrical institutions.
Such an agreement would mean that funding still came through the Arts Council, but on the basis of a new understanding.
"The difference is that while the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht saw us as a national theatre, the Arts Council didn't. Now they do. If we are agreed on this, funding can be put on a rational basis," said Mr Mason.
He was speaking after a press conference at the Abbey Theatre to announce details of Abbey and Peacock programmes for the coming months.
After Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest, directed by Patrick Mason, which opens tonight in the Abbey, comes Give Me Your Answer Do, a new play by Brian Friel.
Mr Mason described the play as "a formidable evening of theatre". This is followed by a new version of Patrick Kavanagh's Tarry Flynn by Conall Morrison.
A new writing season at the Peacock includes a play by Gary Mitchell, called In A Little World Of Our Own. It will open on February 12th, directed by Conall Morrison, and is described by Mason as "a riveting psychological thriller". Other plays include A Picture Of Paradise by Jimmy Murphy and Sour Grapes by Michael Harding.