Full transcript of the Joint Comittee debate on arts funding now available

Brendan Gleeson:

Arts funding is vital, for national morale in the first instance. This country was founded by dreamers and poets.That dream led to the foundation of this State.

Despite everything, we have forged a distinct place among the nations of the earth, in large part due to our sense of self, the vigour of our commitment to artistic excellence and the uniqueness of our cultural expression. It is important to us and others respond to it. In times of recession and flagging spirits, it is especially important to reassert that sense of ourselves, for ourselves. The arts provide that above everything else. We need to communicate that self-belief to the world at large. We punch well above our weight internationally, partly because we are and are seen to be creative. In literature, theatre, movies and every other branch of the arts, we continue to successfully demonstrate to the world that we can be a productive, innovative and dynamic people. This has economic as well as cultural benefits. People want to come here to be a part of it, whether to work or to play. It has an almost unquantifiable value. It is crucial that we maintain it if we are to emerge from our present difficulties. Funding is critical if we are to continue to enable intelligent and creative people to produce work here that has an intrinsic value to us and our well-being, promotes our reputation and standing abroad and generates revenue. 

I started my acting career with the Passion Machine theatre company, which was established to bring theatre to new areas. It was all about inclusion. It sought to bring theatre to people who would not normally think of theatre as having anything to do with them. Artistically, the company explored and reflected people’s lives. The audiences, who came in their thousands, felt a real sense of identification with what they experienced. It was uplifting. The support of the Arts Council facilitated the expansion and development of the company. We ended up playing to packed houses in mainstream theatres. When we did ten-week runs in the Olympia Theatre, it was jammed to the rafters every night. In the midst of the dreadful economic desert of the 1980s, tens of thousands of people came to our shows and felt less isolated and less anonymous. They laughed a lot. They felt we were in this thing together, and so did we.

We punch well above our weight internationally, partly because we are and are seen to be creative. In literature, theatre, movies and every other branch of the arts, we continue to successfully demonstrate to the world that we can be a productive, innovative and dynamic people. This has economic as well as cultural benefits. People want to come here to be a part of it, whether to work or to play. It has an almost unquantifiable value. It is crucial that we maintain it if we are to emerge from our present difficulties. Funding is critical if we are to continue to enable intelligent and creative people to produce work here that has an intrinsic value to us and our well-being, promotes our reputation and standing abroad and generates revenue.

Sebastian Barry

People have been thinking about what it is to have artists….One of the things that hurt me as an individual living in Wicklow was to read in the McCarthy report that “art would happen anyway” whether funded or not. I found this a sort of ferocious little libel on the life of the artist. I immediately thought of Patrick Kavanagh wandering out into Pembroke Road to borrow sixpence to put in the gas meter or buy a glass of whiskey. He was never quite sure what he should be doing. That is how he lived, despite the fact that he was a great man. He did not have the support of the State. Since 1969, with the institution of the artists’ tax exemption, mysterious things have occurred. In that sense, this country has met the original dream. Great structures have been heroically put in place by both Government and agencies of Government such as the Arts Council.