133. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport when he will publish the report of Professor Niamh Brennan into governance and culture at the Arts Council; and the timetable for the implementation of the recommendations within that report. [4113/26]

Sentiment score: 0.00

I welcome that there is already a set timetable in terms of the recommendations for the Arts Council and the Minister's Department but the report itself goes beyond the Department and some of it is cross-cutting. The report was commissioned by the Minister and I take the opportunity to thank Professor Brennan and her team for publishing it. It identifies a lot of issues, some of which have already been addressed in the Arts Council and some of which have already been addressed, as far as I know, in the Department. There are substantial issues in terms of the public service as a whole to ensure such debacles do not happen again in smaller public sector bodies. There are recommendations which go beyond the Department. Has the Minister liaised with the Department of public expenditure and reform to ensure the recommendations associated with it will also progress?

Sentiment score: 0.35

One of the key points that jumped out at me, given the context of other failed IT programmes, is that the report emphasised that a multiplicity of public service bodies of a similar scale to the Arts Council should be better supported from within the public sector when it comes to undertaking projects akin to the Arts Council project. There is a challenge there for the Government as a whole. The Minister is not responsible for this but I urge him to use the opportunity at Cabinet, when the report comes up, to remind all Departments that it is public money at the end of the day. There is still an IT issue in the Arts Council. The project collapsed and obviously there is a need to address the grants application system, which was using a defunct system which was held together with Sellotape, I am told. There is also the issue of the directorship. Dr. Moling Ryan is temporarily in the job as an interim director. Is there any word on when the Minister is likely to be able to fill the role permanently?

Sentiment score: 0.09