Minister was 'desperately angry' at Arts Council's €6.6m 'waste' on abandoned IT system

Arts Minister Patrick O'Donovan is seek approval from the Cabinet to initiate an investigation

Minister Patrick O'Donovan said: 'There’s young artists and artists all across the country, community groups and people who would look at almost €7m and say with the small monies that are being allocated to them, that this is something that they probably could have done with.'

Arts Minister Patrick O'Donovan has said he was "desperately angry" after learning that the Arts Council spent €6.6m on an IT system that was never delivered.

The Government ordered a review on Wednesday into the culture and governance of the Arts Council after learning of the overspend.

Speaking about the overspending on Thursday, Mr O'Donovan said: “This is a huge amount of public monies that has been wasted that cannot be recovered and will not be able to be used for any process other than waste.” 

Mr O'Donovan said it is the "second big issue" the department has faced following on from the RTÉ payments scandal. "And it is a cause of huge annoyance and anger within government and certainly from my perspective as well," Mr O'Donovan said.

The new Arts Minister said 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".

The initial investigation into the €6.6m spend found that the Arts Council was not prepared for the scale of the IT project development and that it had not put in place resources to deliver it.

"There’s young artists and artists all across the country, community groups and people who would look at almost €7m and say with the small monies that are being allocated to them, that this is something that they probably could have done with," Mr O'Donovan said

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, he 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. He made his government colleagues aware because there was an obligation on each minister to lay the accounts before the Oireachtas.    

Mr O’Donovan said that the comptroller and auditor general had identified that the cause of impairment was in excess of €5.5m.

“In other words, the monies that are likely to be lost. I'm not certain as to whether or not the other monies that have been spent will be of any benefit or any use to the Arts Council going forward. That's a matter to be determined.” 

Mr O'Donovan explained that the project was “drawn to shuddering end" in July last year, and the secretary general at that stage initiated an internal review, which Mr O’Donovan had published. He had to be satisfied that there were no other issues, especially given the considerable budget of the Arts Council — €140m.

“So, the first thing I am going to do is set terms of reference. I will go back to the Cabinet and seek approval from the Cabinet to initiate the investigation. And I hope to have those terms of reference concluded within the next fortnight or 10 days.” 

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Mr O’Donovan said he was anxious to carry out the investigation as quickly as possible because “there is a systems failure here that is quite extraordinary really in terms of adherence to public spending codes, to governance, to procurement, to oversight, to schedule adherence to project management, none of which would have been reported to the secretary general in the department. And it also wouldn't have been reported as a result to colleagues in government.”

Tánaiste Simon Harris told Fine Gael TDs on Wednesday that he was "furious" with the €6.6m spend — which occurred during former Green TD Catherine Martin's tenure as arts minister. Particular frustration was expressed by the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers at Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, according to several sources.

"They [Taoiseach and Tánaiste] were very angry and questioned why Catherine Martin hadn't flagged this issue before Christmas," a senior source said. Spokespeople for both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste confirmed neither men were informed by Ms Martin of the issue before Wednesday's Cabinet meeting.

Ms Martin did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Arts Council said that they “greatly regret” that the IT project was not completed, adding they were seeking redress.