The executive committee of the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers said it has lost confidence in the Arts Council's commitment to local arts development.
The council, it said, "has demonstrated diminishing interest in supporting local authorities in their arts development work".
In a short statement issued yesterday it said "recent media reports of tensions within the Arts Council have come as no surprise to the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers. The association, which has members in nearly all the local authorities, has become increasingly aware of these difficulties over recent years and consider that local arts development has been a victim.
"The association's concerns have grown with the Arts Council's failure to implement the first Arts Plan in relation to local arts development and its consequent inability to deliver on the promised partnership with local authorities.
"The Association of Local Authority Arts Officers was disappointed but not surprised by the refusal of the Arts Council executive to facilitate a requested meeting with the Arts Council earlier this year. The Arts Council, the body entrusted with development of the arts in Ireland, has demonstrated diminishing interest in supporting local authorities in their arts development work.
"The stand-off adopted has resulted in the fragmentation of work at local level throughout the country. The Association of Local Authority Arts Officers has lost confidence in the Arts Council's commitment to local arts development and believe that, under present strategy, provision in this area is headed for serious regression."
The director of the Arts Council, Ms Patricia Quinn, said last night she felt it inappropriate to respond as she had not seen the statement "which purports to represent the views of county arts officers and which was brought to my attention late on Friday evening. I would obviously like an opportunity to study its content before making a response because the relationships that have been forged by the Arts Council both with individual local authorities, with county arts officers, and with county managers are very precious to us".
She would welcome an opportunity to respond in full to the issues raised and hoped to do so at an early opportunity.
Mr Somhairle Mac Conghail, chairman of the Association of Local Authority Arts Officers, said last night the council had "completely abandoned local authorities. They have been kept in the dark" and were "cut off, in effect".
Where most local arts officers were concerned the Arts Council had become "irrelevant on the ground", he said. He complained about difficulties in communicating with senior officers.
He criticised what he described as the council's "ineptitude" in implementing the last Arts Plan under which local arts development was to be a priority. "That was not the case," he said, "and there is only one mention [of the sector] in the new plan."
He criticised what he described as the preoccupation of staff there with questionnaires. "They are obsessed with questionnaires, questionnaires, questionnaires, questionnaires."
The atmosphere at council headquarters had changed, he said. "There's a bad feeling in the place, unfriendly. We used to be like colleagues. Now it's a case of the Arts Council versus us."
He spoke of one staff member who was under such pressure that "every time we met . . . was crying", and he spoke of other staff at the Arts Council offices who have been ill in recent years. "It's an extremely unhappy place". Ms Quinn considered it inappropriate to respond to any of Mr Mac Conghail's observations.
