Minister ‘desperately angry’ at €7m Arts Council waste

Minister for Arts and Culture Patrick O’Donovan has said that his priority in his new portfolio is “to examine externally the culture of governance, oversight, adherence to the public spending code and schedule adherence of not just this project, but of other projects that have been commenced and carried out by the council.

“It’s the second big issue that our department has faced, the other being RTÉ, and it is a cause of huge annoyance and anger within government and certainly from my perspective as well.

“There’s young artists and artists all across the country, community groups and people who would look at almost €7 million and say with the small monies that are being allocated to them, that this is something that they probably could have done with.”

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr O’Donovan said that when he was “settling in” to his department and having met with officials, he became aware of the issue with the 2023 set of accounts, of which he…