It would be churlish to challenge the recent assertion of Minister for the Arts and Culture, John O'Donoghue, that a cursory look at 2005 indicates a "positive approach" in this area from the Government. The year has produced a generous increase in State support, a sensible and forward-looking framework for future "partnership" between the Arts Council and its clients, the retention of the tax exemption (for those artists who most need it), a new agency to promote Irish culture abroad, a major funding boost for the traditional sector and the regeneration of arts infrastructure in Dublin with the go- ahead for a new Concert Hall complex and a new Abbey Theatre.
Considering that the Abbey's survival was very much in doubt at the beginning of 2005, it has done remarkably well to find itself going into a new year relieved of its significant financial deficit - thanks again to State support - and well advanced with its in-house restructuring and corporate reforms. What, of course, remains to be done is to restore its reputation as a vital force in Irish theatre.
The matter of the new location - a cost-free site in Dublin's Docklands - seems to have become a fait accompli without any public debate, which is a shame, and may be indicative of a sense of fatigue with this prolonged saga. Whether this is the most suitable site for a National Theatre deserved some interrogation. Could, for example, the present site not be rebuilt? Surely current architectural ingenuity is capable of an appropriate design to replace the current building?
With Cork ringing out its tenure as European Capital of Culture, the year ahead already promises two significant cultural events: the celebration of the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth - more significant than the Bloomsday centenary of 2004 - and the reopening of an extended Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.
The Hugh Lane reopening might be the ideal time for some examination of the roles of Dublin's major gallery spaces. There has developed, over time, too much overlap and a lack of coherence in the collections of the Hugh Lane, IMMA and the National Gallery. Any lover of art visiting the city could be forgiven for failing to grasp any sense of the functions of these galleries. The time has come to reposition them - and to consider bringing the works of one of our greatest 20th century painters together under one roof. A museum dedicated to Jack B. Yeats would, like those honouring Munch in Oslo and Van Gogh in Amsterdam, benefit the capital's cultural infrastructure and also serve as a major tourist attraction.