In a surprise move late yesterday, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, announced a review of arts legislation, including the Arts Council.
"A Radical Review of Arts Legislation," as the project is titled, is to begin in January. The council celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2001.
According to the press release from the Department, the review will examine new legislation which reflects the way "we develop, support and understand the arts".
Ms de Valera points to the new role adopted by the Arts Council of development agency and suggests that it must be "facilitated to make the shift from what it has been to what the 21st century will demand of it".
Significantly, she identifies the need to bring the Arts Council in line with "contemporary practice" with regard to "the specification of the relationship between the council and the executive".
She says when any area of Irish life is subject to radical review there tends to be an assumption that it is deeply flawed, demanding corrective action. "In the case of the arts, and indeed the Arts Council, the reverse is the reality."
She points to "the innovative, practical and visionary arts plan" delivered under the chairman, Prof Brian Farrell.
Referring to the current members of the Arts Council, she pays tribute to the collaborative nature of their work, but says she hopes that the review can "identify the positive and essential factors which have brought us thus far and clarify new methods and approaches necessary in the changed context" of the arts.
Asked for her reaction, the director of the Arts Council, Ms Patricia Quinn, said: "I welcome this review and see it as part of the progressive planning which has been undertaken by the Department of Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht and the Islands, under Minister de Valera. I look forward with confidence to participation in the review process."