Arts Council dispute may affect grants and support

SUPPORT services and grants for the arts are under threat because of an industrial dispute at the Arts Council

SUPPORT services and grants for the arts are under threat because of an industrial dispute at the Arts Council. Among the events that could be affected are the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Galway Arts Festival, the Wexford Opera Festival and the Cork Film Festival.

About half of the funding for these events has still to processed by the council. It is understood that around £600,000 of the Abbey Theatre's £2.5 million subvention has still to be drawn down, along with £150,000 of the Gate Theatre's £500,000 subvention.

Altogether the council funds over 400 organisations, 360 individuals and sponsors 1,200 "art flights" (in conjunction with Aer Lingus) for artists wishing to travel abroad.

Arts Council staff are considering strike action because of a refusal by the Government to honour the terms of a Labour Court recommendation made almost four months ago. The award would cost the State £50,000 and could be met from the council's existing budget of £18.4 million.

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The situation is further complicated by the fact that the director of the council, Mr Adrian Munnelly, is resigning to take up a position in the private sector. As a result the union involved, SIPTU, anticipates further delays in resolving the dispute.

Staff earn between £8,500 and £24,000 a year, with the majority near the lower end of that scale.

The Labour Court recommendation provides for a number of promotions and making most of the existing staff permanent.

Both the Arts Council and the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht have indicated their willingness to accept the Labour Court recommendation but the Department of Finance which must approve the expenditure, has so far refused to do so. Ms Patricia King, branch secretary of SIPTU, said the union has been processing the claim for seven years.

She said it was ironic that, at time when the Government been criticising Packard for refusing to accept a Labour Court recommendation on redundancy terms for its workforce, a Government Department is being allowed to behave in exactly the same way.

Ms King said the Departments of Finance had told her that the delay since the Labour Court recommendation was made on March 13th is partly due to the file being mislaid. It is now considering alternative proposals, but it is not prepared to give these to SIPTU. They will be relayed in due course through the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht.

The Arts Council has received no increase in staffing since 1981, although the arts grants budget has increased from £5.7 million to £18.4 million in the meantime. The number of organisations if supports has risen from 200 to 430 over the same period.

Altogether 22,500 people are employed in the arts, almost as many as in the computer software industry. These are serviced along with thousands more in community arts groups and other amateur activities by 22 Arts Council staff, two of whom are permanent employees.

Mr Munnelly said yesterday that the dispute raised wider issues about the importance of the arts in society. The establishment of a department for the arts had given formal political recognition of the importance of the arts, but there had been no follow through in terms of resources.

On the dispute he said: "We went through the industrial relations process diligently, fully supported by our parent department".

Asked about the SIPTU claim that the file on the dispute had been mislaid, a spokesman for the Department of Finance said that no information was missing and the Department had all the information it needed to make a decision. The Fianna Fail spokesman on finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy, is expected to raise the dispute in the Dail next week.