The Government is “furious” at millions of euros spent by the Arts Council on an unsuccessful IT project.
It emerged that the Arts Council had spent 6.6675 million euro on a failed IT project that had been in development since 2019.
Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan said it was originally meant to take two-and-a-half years and cost three million euro.
The Arts Council said it “greatly” regrets that the project failed and is engaging with contractors on seeking “legal redress”.
All activities at the state agency are now to be subjected to an external review, the minister said.
“I am really, really annoyed over this, this is not the type of space that the Arts Council need to be in,” Mr O’Donovan told RTE.
“It’s an organisation in the first instance that is supposed to be supporting young artists, emerging artists, and community-based art initiatives and instead is answering questions with regard to an ICT project that has ran way over budget, over 100% over budget, and way over time as well, and not operable.
“We’re not happy with what has happened here, and we have to get in under the bonnet now to find out actually what happened, not only with regard to this, but specifically, if there are other issues within the Arts Council as well that we need to be made aware of.”
He said there were questions to be raised about why the Department of Arts and Culture allowed the overspend on the project.
He said he had expressed “deep concern” to both the chairwoman and director of the Arts Council.
Former culture minister Catherine Martin (Brian Lawless/PA)
The issue was brought to the attention of the Department of Culture last summer, when Catherine Martin held that portfolio. It was not publicly disclosed at the time.
It prompted the secretary general of the Department to initiate an examination of the Arts Council project last year, which returned 36 recommendations.
The report found that the Arts Council was not prepared for the scale of the project and did not put in place adequate resources to deliver it.
The examination also found that the oversight, monitoring and reporting arrangements by the department over the lifespan of the project were inadequate.
Spokesmen for Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Tanaiste Simon Harris said they were not aware of the Arts Council IT issue during the previous government.
Mr Harris is understood to have told a meeting of his parliamentary party on Wednesday night that he was “furious” over the issue.
“This is the sort of issue that rightly infuriated the Irish people,” he is understood to have told Fine Gael colleagues.
Speaking to RTE, Mr O’Donovan said it was “too early to say” whether there would be resignations as a result of the overspend.
He added: “The taxpayers and the citizens of the country looking at this naturally will be as angry as I am. They will be saying ‘What is after happening here?’ ‘How has it happened?’ ‘Who was responsible?’ and ‘What are the repercussions going to be?’”
He also said he believed that artists themselves would be angry at the overspend.
He added: “My anger, I would imagine, is nothing to the anger of artists right across the country and community groups and other organisations who are seeking funding for refurbishments, for community grants, for individual bursaries, or whatever it is, to support them and to have a basic level of income.
“So we have to get a root-and-branch analysis of what’s after happening in this, but I also have to be satisfied that there’s nothing else there.”
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said that he was concerned with governance issues over the IT project and the relationship between the Department and the Arts Council.
“The Government is extremely concerned about a report with regards to the IT system of the Arts Council that was presented to the Cabinet today,” he told reporters in Dublin.
“The two issues that are of particular concern to me were firstly governance issues in relation to how the scheme was being developed but then actually not implemented, within the Arts Council, and then also the relationship between the Arts Council and the government department itself, the length of time it took for these issues to be alerted.
“All that being said, I do want to recognise the really good work the Arts Council does do, we have to do that.
“We have writers, we have musicians, we have filmmakers, we have dramatists who are doing so well across the world due to the support they have received from the Arts Council. That does have to be acknowledged.”
The Arts Council said in a statement that it “greatly” regretted the failure of “this ambitious and complex project”.
It said that after reviews concluded that “deficiencies and bugs were so fundamental” that it was not cost effective to continue, the project was paused in late 2023 and halted in June 2024.
It said that work worth 1.2 million euro is “reusable” and expenditure of 5.3 million euro is a “write-off”.
“We take our role as custodian of public money very seriously and for that reason we are engaging with our contractors with a view to seeking legal redress,” it said.
Funding for the Arts Council has increased by 75% in recent years to 140 million euro this year.
It also said that the contractors were appointed through the public procurement process and “delivered substandard work”.
Maura McGrath, who became chairwoman of the Arts Council in June last year, said she was “deeply concerned” at the failed project.
“I have assured Minister O’Donovan that whatever measures and reforms are required will be rigorously pursued by me, the Arts Council Board and the executive,” she said.
“We will work with the Department to address this issue and ensure it cannot recur, and I have already initiated an external governance review.
“We, at the Arts Council, have been given funds to invest in the arts and support artists.
“This is the public trust we hold, and the trust I am determined to uphold.”
Director of the Arts Council Maureen Kennelly said: “It was always our intention to deliver the best possible service for artists and arts organisations by replacing our ageing IT systems.
“The Arts Council made decisions based on external advice and expertise throughout this project. We greatly regret that this ambitious and complex project was not completed and we are engaging with the contractors with a view to seeking legal redress.
“We have provided all information to the Department to ensure their examination of this project is comprehensive and we are engaging with the implementation of the recommendations.
“The need for a new system remains and I am determined to provide an improved grants management system for the arts sector.”