The contributions to this newspaper's recent coverage of the cultural highlights of the past year give a good sense of the rich variety and quality of arts programming in Ireland today. The picture is one of dynamism and expansion, great commitment on the part of those working in this area, multiplicity of choice and a more confident relationship with the wider, international arts community.
While this transformation is very much down to the vision of those who create and facilitate art, the way in which, in more recent years, the Government has come to regard and treat culture has been vital to this transformation - taking it from the periphery and acknowledging, as the former minister, John O'Donoghue recently stated, that "in the last decade the arts have been an important part of what Ireland has become". The practical manifestation of this conversion has, of course, been significantly increased funding.
That recognition of the relevance of the arts must now be further consolidated by his successor, Seamus Brennan, upon whom the arts sector is depending to make certain that there is no return to the bad old days of financial crisis and lack of stability. The arts, in return, will nourish our society - but in ways that can never be truly measured in statistics and spreadsheet data. Rather, they should be viewed and nurtured as a defining ingredient of the kind of society we aspire to.
Mr Brennan's post-Budget announcement that the target funding of €272 million for the Arts Council's Strategy Partnership for the Arts 2006-2008 will be met is reassuring. In effect, it means an extra €25 million for the Arts Council before, or as part of next year's budget - an increase that will make amends for the below-inflation increase of a mere €2.1 million this year. The Minister's additional resources for the touring initiative is a welcome boost to his own desire to encourage greater access and create new audiences beyond Dublin.
His predecessor's thoughtful parting message - at a celebration of his tenure in the Department of Arts - contained a candid reminder of a key principle in the relationship between culture and its funders. Defining the role of the Arts Council, he said that it "operates as an arm's-length body so the State is placed in the position of doing what it has historically done well - funding - and not what it has historically done very badly - control of the arts". As well as his pivotal role of advocacy in Cabinet, and his responsibility to keep funding levels adequate, Mr Brennan must also safeguard this guiding principle, for the sake of both artists and State.