Political theatre

In a bid to get the arts figuring more prominently on campaign agendas ahead of the election, lobby group Theatre Forum (in conjunction with other arts organisations like Visual Artists Ireland and the Writers Centre) recently invited the arts spokespeople of the main political parties to outline their policies at a debate in Andrew’s Lane Theatre in Dublin.

While the Progressive Democrats’ Fiona O’Malley was unable to attend due to a last minute commitment, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O’Donoghue, in addition to Jimmy Deenihan (Fine Gael), Jack Wall (Labour) and Paul Gogarty (Greens) were on hand to discuss their respective parties’ approach to arts policies. The format saw each politician first make a short speech outlining their party’s key proposals, before questions were taken from the audience, which was largely comprised of key figures from the arts sector in Ireland.
First up was Jimmy Deenihan, the former Gaelic footballer who won several All-Ireland titles as part of the legendary Kerry side of the ’70s and ’80s. Deenihan commenced his speech by emphasising Fine Gael’s commitment to the relocation of the Abbey Theatre and the development of the National Concert Hall.
He also said the party would support local education partnerships between schools and artists, and encourage more people to take music to Leaving Cert level. Also on the music front, Deenihan voiced his support for the initiation of a national music forum, involving IBEC and various national music bodies.
Arts funding was the central theme of Paul Gogarty’s contribution, wherein the Green Party spokesman argued that in addition to its intrinsic cultural benefit, investment in the arts also makes sense in hard financial terms. He called for an additional E10m to be made available to the Arts Council and for increased tax revenue to be allocated to the sector.
Unsurprisingly, Deenihan’s fellow Kerry man John O’Donoghue was keen to emphasise the positive developments in the arts in recent years, pointing to the establishment of Culture Ireland in 2005 and stating that the lot of traditional arts has improved during his tenure, whilst acknowledging that education policy in this area still needs to be developed. O’Donoghue also stated that the tax regime needs to benevolent towards artists, expressed his desire to see innovation in the area of public architecture (eg. the Abbey and the NCH) and concluded by describing the current generation of Irish artists as “the most innovative and imaginative ever”.
The final speech came from Labour’s Kildare TD Jack Wall who, in an interesting aside, was a key part of the backroom team when Deenihan’s former Kerry mentor, manager Mick O’Dwyer, led Kildare to Leinster Football Championships in 1998 and 2000 (for good measure, they even defeated Kerry in the former campaign!) Wall’s contribution drew on Labour’s Art For All document, which heavily emphasises the importance of nurturing young artistic talent, under the combined auspices of the Arts Council and local authorities.
Arguing that artists “must have a financial base to work from”, Wall spoke out in favour of a fixed level of funding for the Arts Council each year. This very issue was the subject of the first question from the floor, which asked the panel if the Arts Council deserved to have its funding increased to E100m per annum.
The Opposition politicians all unanimously agreed that this was a fair figure and that, budgetary conditions permitting, a higher amount was desirable (interestingly, Gogarty said that if arts funding was distributed through different departments like health and education, a figure of E150m was achievable). O’Donoghue said that E100m was attainable, although qualified the remark by explaining that “with every respect to any holder of that office, negotiating with the Minister for Finance is never an easy task.”