Millions of euros of arts and sports funding wasted, report finds
By Bairbre Holmes, PA
A new report has found that a lack of IT skills in The Arts Council was a major reason for a €6.7 million project failing.
The Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) on Tuesday released the findings of their examination of the accounts of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, and the financial statements of the Arts Council of Ireland and the National Gallery from 2023.
It found that a project launched in 2017 to integrate five old systems had been scheduled to be completed by 2021 at a cost of around €3 million.
However by the time it was abandoned in 2024 it had cost €6.7 million.
While some of that money was recouped, the project’s net financial loss came to €5.3 million.
Speaking at the launch of the report, the committee’s Leas-Cathaoirleach Paul McAuliffe said the lack of senior in-house IT expertise in the Arts Council was a “failure” saying: “There’s no way they would have funded substantial arts projects without arts expertise in the organisation.”
He criticised the organisation for embarking on a multi-million euro project without the necessary technical expertise, and the department for failing to act when the Arts Council came to it seeking assistance.
One of the report’s key recommendations is that all departments, and agencies conduct “rigorous pre-purchase checks” before buying specialist equipment.
It was made after The National Gallery spent almost €125,000 on an X-ray system in 2017 that has not yet been used because of issues arranging a lead-lined room needed to house the machine.
The committee’s Cathaoirleach John Brady said “it seems like a very logical recommendation and to have to make it says a lot”.
The National Gallery has told the committee the equipment has fully depreciated, but is not technologically obsolete and is expected to be operational by the end of this year.
Also criticised by the report was a failure to spend €56.4 million of the Department’s 2023 budget.
The Department’s secretary-general attributed this to post-Covid construction delays and pressure from inflation which impacted capital projects in particular.
It meant projects like the RDS redevelopment and Connacht Rugby Stadium stalled because of increased costs and difficulties securing contractors.
Mr Brady said he believed projects in his own West Wicklow constituency were affected by an underspend in the provision of swimming pools.
He said: “There’s an ongoing campaign for 20 years to try to get a swimming pool in the area, they have put in a funding application, which was turned down.”
The report also found there were “serious weaknesses” in the Department’s ability to measure performance, particularly when it came to arts and sports funding.
It said the arts programme “lacked defined targets or clear benchmarks for success”, with the Controller and Auditor General saying that without clear targets performance measurements it “risks becoming ‘a mere box-ticking exercise'”.
