Hanafin: No guarantee of funding increase for cash-strapped venue

THERE are no guarantees of increased state funding for the cash-strapped Cork Opera House, the Minister for Tourism, Sports and Culture said yesterday.

Mary Hanafin accepted that the landmark venue, which closed in June for three months because of funding difficulties, is like other cultural venues struggling to cope with running costs.

But she said detailed work on future funding arrangements for such venues has not yet been discussed in the context of the formation of this year’s budget.

And she said she has not had any specific talks with the Arts Council in relation to how it grant-aids the venue.

The city’s Lord Mayor has described the Arts Council’s €18,000 annual funding to the theatre as “disgraceful”.

Speaking in Cork yesterday, Ms Hanafin said previous funding levels for such cultural venues would have been agreed before she took office in the department.

“We haven’t sat down yet to do the intricacies of this year’s budget – we’ll just have to fight the corner between now and budget day,” she said.

“For major cultural institutions like that, it is important they can offer a programme that’s as wide as possible and makes it as accessible as possible to a very wide group of people.

“But we have to bear in mind that the same arguments can be made for a lot of the new projects that were developed over recent years under the Access programme, which has built theatres, galleries and facilities all over the country and they are all quite stretched now for the running costs.

“They got good capital funding but there are running costs. I know it is difficult for people.

“I know they are all trying to be very imaginative about the programmes they are offering but we can’t give any guarantees on the budget this year yet.”

There was shock in June when the board of the Opera House announced that it had taken the unprecedented decision to close its doors from July 4 to September 29 as part of a radical cost-saving exercise.

Two Daniel O’Donnell concerts and an Après Match show were honoured. The theatre has been silent since the Après Match gig on July 16.

The temporary closure follows a review of its books that show a projected loss of €300,000 for the period March 2009 to March 2010.

The board has been told the venue must save at least €500,000 from its operating costs.

Staff have also been warned that costs will have to be reduced further through a combination of “significant payroll reductions” and redundancies.

The 1,000-seat Opera House reported losses last September of just over €83,000 for the financial year ending in March 2009, having reported a profit of just over 49,000 the previous year.

Turnover was also down 10% – from €6.3m in 2008 to €5.6m last year.

The board, which has vowed to tackle the financial situation, has set up a task force to engage with promoters in an effort to attract quality acts, and a sub-finance committee has been set up to review, among other things, ticket prices. It has also promised a full autumn and winter schedule.