Literature written off grants list

THE recent announcement of the Arts Council's small capital funding grants to art organisations has caused deep distress across the literature sector in Ireland.

The sums involved were relatively small, amounting to €750,000 - a figure equivalent to about one-third of what the Irish sailing team received going to the Olympics. But the literature sector's share of just over 1% - under €10,000 - nationwide was taken by us as an indicator of just how out of touch the Arts Council is with an ongoing crisis of severe proportions.

The support structures for writers in this country are depressed and under- resourced relative to: