The Arts Council's awards are due to be made public on Monday, but most clients have already been informed of their allocations. Expressions of dismay are inevitable, but the APIC (National Arts and Disability) Centre's howls have so far been loudest. This Dublin-based organisation has issued a press release headlined: "Arts Council Snobbery - Again!", claiming that the only dedicated arts centre for people with disabilities has been "snubbed" in the funding decisions for the fifth year in a row: "Although an investment of over £250,000 is needed to ensure all disabled people in all corners of Ireland for whom art is the only opportunity for a career or communication are fully catered for, less than one fifth, £44,000, has been allocated. £2,000 must be squandered on an evaluation of the centre and £20,000 on ONE staff member's salary, where a staff of at least 10 is required . . . "

This comes hot on the heels of public and emphatic statements by the Arts Council on the redoubling of its commitment to the disabled: the publishing of the Arts Council's handbook on the arts and disability and its appointment of Lisa Moran as Arts and Disability Executive. What's going on? The Arts Council has issued a statement refuting the assertions of unfairness APIC has made. APIC is, it emphasises, "only one of the organisations practising in this emerging sector" - and has received revenue and capital funding from the Council. The Council lists the number of direct channels through which it accesses the disabled, including support for REHAB's "Art Access" programme, for Very Special Arts, for the adaptation of buildings, and also its many clients who prioritise programmes and facilities for the disabled: the Abbey Theatre, Theatre Omnibus and the Firestation Arts Studios, for example.

It's obviously a dispute that is going to run and run in an area of the arts which is crackling with activity.