Artists’ group defends €2.7m funding

An elite artists’ group has rejected public criticism over the amount of funding it receives from the taxpayer, claiming the Government would drive “JCBs full of money” to any private business that provided such a return on the “investment”.

The defence of the pay-out was made at the annual general assembly of creative artists’ group Aosdána, at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin.

During a one-hour annual public session yesterday, figures from the world of literature, creative design, and poetry hit out at claims the group does not deserve its €2.7m annual funding. The figure for the organisation — which was set up in 1981 by the Arts Council and then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey to help support some of Ireland’s leading artists and which tightly regulates membership — is spent almost entirely on stipends for the majority of members, which has not fallen since the recession began.