Sinn F茅in spokesperson for Gaeilge, Gaeltacht, Arts and Culture, Aengus 脫 Snodaigh TD, has slammed the Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O鈥橠onovan TD, for instituting a new, unfair first-come, first-served approach to funding under the Grassroots Music Venue Scheme, without any justification.
Teachta 脫 Snodaigh said:
鈥淚 always welcome additional funding to support music and the arts, but venues deserve fair play in any application process, and that simply did not happen in this case.
鈥淎pplicants were given a window in which to apply by a set deadline, only to apparently discover once they applied that a secret first-come, first served cut-off was in place.
鈥淭his meant only the earliest to apply got funding, and Minister O鈥橠onovan refused to say, when I asked yesterday in the D谩il, if some applicants were informed of this insider information in advance and given an unfair advantage.
鈥淢inister O鈥橠onovan admitted that it would be inappropriate to divvy out a scheme as large as the Sports Capital Grant on a first-come, first-served basis, but saw no problem with applying the same meritless approach to this 鈧500,000 music venue scheme.
鈥淚t was particularly galling that the Minister said he was satisfied there was a good regional spread considering not one venue north of Galway or west of Louth was awarded funding, while 42% of recipients are in his home province of Munster.
鈥淭his is a gross insult to the Northwest and Midlands regions, particularly considering The Social in Gaoth D贸bhair operated 84 eligible events over the 2-year period considered for the scheme and applied within a week of applications opening.
鈥淎s my colleague, Pearse Doherty TD, told the Minister in the D谩il yesterday, performers, sound engineers and lighting engineers in the Northwest will now lose out compared to other regions of the state.
鈥淢inister O鈥橠onovan鈥檚 claim to have aimed to provide the maximum amount of money to the maximum amount of locations does not hold water.
鈥淭he grant scheme allowed for an allocation of anywhere between 鈧5,000 and 鈧15,000 to each applicant, and as there were only 45 eligible applicants, this could have meant 鈧11,000 for each one.
鈥淚nstead, Minister O鈥橠onovan took the lazy approach of simply giving the first 33 applicants the maximum 鈧15,000, which in fact means there is still 鈧5,000 in the pot which went to nobody.
鈥淢inister O鈥橠onovan should provide a proper explanation of why this first-come, first-served approach was adopted and who was told in advance.
鈥淧eople in the Northwest and Midlands also deserve an explanation from Fianna F谩il, Fine Gael and Independent TDs who support this government policy of leaving their local music sector behind.鈥