Members of the Arts Council held an emergency meeting yesterday amid growing tensions within the organisation.
Members of the council's steering committee, which met for two hours in Dublin, wanted to know why a review of the implementation of Labour Court recommendations concerning its Merrion Square headquarters had not been made available to the council. It was learned yesterday that serious differences have emerged between the council's director, Ms Patricia Quinn, and a former officer, Ms Marian Flanagan. A member of the council, Ms Emer O'Kelly, said they had been told that Ms Flanagan, officer for North/South co-operation and for local authorities, had resigned for "personal reasons".
Ms Flanagan told The Irish Times yesterday that none of her reasons for resignation was personal.
It has also emerged from council members that there has been concern for some time that they were not being kept fully informed about the running of the Merrion Square offices. At an emergency meeting of the council's implementation committee on September 15th last, "things were spoken very strongly indeed" on this matter, one member said.
Ms Quinn, sources said, offered to resign at that meeting and withdrew while this was considered. It was decided the circumstances did not warrant resignation.
Following yesterday's meeting, a spokeswoman declined to comment on what had taken place.
This week, The Irish Times put several questions to Ms Quinn via a spokeswoman on the situation within the Merrion Square offices. The spokeswoman said Ms Quinn was declining to comment.
