Only 1% for Fingal from Arts Council

Arts council grants were published last week. Despite being Ireland’s fourth most populous county council, grants from the Arts Council to Arts groups in the Fingal area amounts to less than 1% of the total.

Fingal County Council is the fourth most populous area in the country, and represents just shy of 6% of the national population. Based on that, you would expect a relatively high allocation of funding to the area. However, the latest grant figures show that only four out of 347 grants were made to bodies in Fingal, and the total amount of such grants - €312,000 – equates to just .5% of the total €58million allocation.

The arts in Fingal deserve to be supported on an equal basis to anywhere else in the country. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case as demonstrated from these figures. I believe this is indiciative of a general trend whereby Fingal does not get a fair slice of central government funding.

Arts Council Grants:
County Organisation 2009
Fingal County Council Coisceim/Cosanic Teoranta €50,000
Fingal County Council Draiocht Ltd / Blanchardstown Arts €162,000
Fingal County Council Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre €70,000
Dublin Fingal County Council €30,000

Fingal County Total €312,000
National Total €58,494,080