Former Arts Minister Catherine Martin breaks silence on IT spending scandal

Former Arts Minister Catherine Martin

Former Arts Minister Catherine Martin has broken her silence on the €6.7m Arts Council IT system scandal.

Ms Martin was responding to the outcry over the revelation that the Arts Council spent €6.6m on an IT system that was never delivered.

An external review of all activities at the Arts Council is to be carried out after it came to light that the IT project, which had an initial cost of €3m and spiralled to more than double the original cost, was eventually axed in 2024 having been deemed not fit for purpose.

In a statement to the Irish Examiner, Ms Martin confirmed that her department received the Arts Council 2023 Annual Report and Financial Statements last summer.

“Upon the disclosure that an IT system development project that the Arts Council had commissioned in 2018 had failed with an overall loss estimated at €5.3m, a decision was taken for the Department to undertake a detailed examination of the Arts Council’s project and to present the 2023 Annual Report and Financial Statements to Cabinet alongside the completed examination and its recommendations,” she said.

“This examination has now been completed and published. I welcome Minister O'Donovan's decision to commission an external review of this matter."

Current Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan confirmed this week that an external review would take place after internal examinations by his department were completed earlier this year. 

He was first made aware of the issue when he took up office two weeks ago.

While issues were flagged in the annual report submitted to the Department of Arts last summer, Tánaiste Simon Harris confirmed to the Dáil that the overspend was not raised with the previous government.

He said the project was not simply a “mistake”, and instead was “a very clear and flagrant breach of the public spending code”.

A report compiled by the Department of Arts says the project was delayed for multiple reasons, including that the Arts Council was not satisfied with the initial work on the project and that milestones were not hit as quickly as expected.

Concerns around “frequent changes” in senior members of the project delivery team were also raised.

During the project’s delivery, there were a total of 17 change requests, which led to a further cost of €707,770 to the project.

It is understood that the Arts Council has indicated to Mr O’Donovan that it is considering the pursuit of legal redress over the project.