Back to drawing board for €44m arts academy plan

THE Government has gone back to the drawing board on a proposed €44m performance arts academy after four years of planning.

The Irish Academy for the Performing Arts (IAPA) was to be based at Dublin City University, with campuses at the University of Limerick and the Firkin Crane dance institute in Cork.

A 12-member governing body was appointed by then Education Minister Michael Woods last April. But his successor Noel Dempsey announced on Thursday night that funding is no longer available for the project.

However, he has transferred responsibility for the project to the Minister John O’Donoghue and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, where it is believed planning will begin from scratch.

“The whole project, which was not ideal anyway, will be put out for wider consultation with schools of music, performers and all interested parties. There will not have been much time lost at that stage because the money just isn’t available now,” a source said.

The idea for the academy was proposed by Mr O’Donoghue’s predecessor Síle de Valera and then Education Minister Micheál Martin in 1999, based on a series of independent reports.

The funding for the IAPA was due to come out of the National Development Plan but the writing appeared to be on the wall when no allocation was made for the project in last November’s estimates. Mr Dempsey asked the 12-member interim governing authority, headed by former National Gallery chair Carmel Naughton, to stand down this week.

The initiative might have been consigned to history but for the Department of Arts stepping in and recognising the potential benefits of producing top class graduates in music, acting and dance.

Professor Micheál Ó Súilleabháin, director of the Irish World Music Centre at UL, said Mr Dempsey’s announcement brought some relief.

“There was a great deal of indecision here over expanding programmes for the last four years, so at least we now know where we stand and we can move ahead on our own,” he said.