It has been a pretty disastrous week for the Abbey Theatre. A business consultant's inquiry into its financial problems reports weak administration and dysfunctional structures contributing to overspending beyond agreed budgets during its centenary year.
The board's finance and audit committee resigns as a result. And the board itself announces it accepts the report and will stand down in coming months to pave the way for a restructuring of the company.
While these are serious faults requiring urgent attention they should not be overstated or exaggerated. They need to be put in perspective. The sums involved are tiny compared to cost overruns for major infrastructural projects in this State. There is no missing money. The National Theatre generates a justifiable pride and strong support among the public. Several of the major tasks required to put the theatre on a sound footing have been clearly identified and await political decision. And the Abbey has a talented new director, Fiach MacConghail, who enjoys widespread support to plan a future mandate.
Political decisions should now take advantage of these possibilities. If they are to do so effectively they must be in line with certain fundamental principles. Ireland needs and deserves a national theatre to express its distinctive literary tradition and develop it anew. It should be properly funded and mainly from the public budget, within agreed parameters of income and expenditure.
The theatre must enjoy the artistic independence that allows it on occasion to present drama with a political or social edge challenging prevailing views and political orthodoxies without fear of retribution. To do this it should be governed by a board representing the main stakeholders, but with a credible autonomy to fulfil such a mandate and capable of resisting gratuitous interference.
Such principles have been eroded over recent years. Overall public funding has fallen by about a quarter in real terms, even while the Abbey struggled to achieve its goals in a more competitive theatrical environment. Like all such artistic endeavours it has had to balance aesthetic and commercial considerations. With goodwill, talented authors, committed actors and staff and decent management this can be done effectively; but it needs to have the security of medium to long term funding and governance to make it work.
The Government faces several key choices over the next few months to put such new structures in place. There is ample scope to set up a new company and fund it properly. Finding a new home for the theatre with a clear timetable of construction and development should become a central part of the project. These decisions can be taken with pride and ambition. The dramatic and theatrical arts are flourishing in Ireland, with many new talents emerging. The National Theatre should be at the heart of these endeavours, not solely prey to the commercial instincts of the Celtic Tiger.