{"id":240179,"date":"2026-01-11T23:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240179\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T23:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:05:07","slug":"arts-council-needs-a-more-fit-for-purpose-board-says-review-of-botched-e5-3m-it-project-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240179\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts Council needs a more \u2018fit for purpose\u2019 board, says review of botched \u20ac5.3m IT project \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Arts Council<\/a> needs a more \u201cfit-for-purpose board\u201d with skills in governance, human resources and law and \u201cnot just knowledge of the arts\u201d, an expert advisory group has recommended.<\/p>\n

The independent review was ordered after the arts organisation\u2019s controversial IT upgrade initiative cost the State \u20ac5.3 million before being abandoned. <\/p>\n

Commissioned by the Department of Culture, the review made 149 recommendations after highlighting board and management failures and inexperience as well as poor departmental oversight.<\/p>\n

It stressed the need for legislative change to allow a more diverse range of board members with skill sets other than knowledge of the arts.<\/p>\n

The review pointed out that IT transformation projects \u201care notoriously difficult to successfully implement, even for large organisations\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Arts Council chair vows to \u2018rigorously\u2019 pursue necessary reforms after botched IT project<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It calls for the Government to consider establishing a \u201cpool of expertise\u201d that public-sector bodies could use to fill key roles to enhance their capacity \u201cto deliver ICT\/business transformation projects\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Art Council\u2019s IT project began in 2018 with a \u20ac3 million budget before hitting \u20ac6.7 million when it was abandoned<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In its annual accounts filed last February the council reported an overall loss of \u20ac5.3 million as some of the work was deemed successful.<\/p>\n

The review found the Arts Council\u2019s business case for the project understated the costs and did not include VAT or the expense of streamlining businesses.<\/p>\n

Oversight by the department was \u201ctoo informal\u201d and issues were not escalated to the appropriate level. <\/p>\n

The council\u2019s \u201csystems of governance failed, with low senior management cohesion, an immature risk culture and limited board oversight\u201d. <\/p>\n

The State agency lacked IT and project management expertise, over-relied on third-party suppliers and did not properly manage contracts.<\/p>\n

The expert advisory committee chaired by Professor Niamh Brennan and including Dr Margaret Cullen and John McCarthy also noted significant pressures elsewhere with a major growth in staff and budget between 2015 and 2023. \u201cManaging the project through Covid was also suboptimal,\u201d the committee found.<\/p>\n

It noted significant changes in the project objective and scale as it developed and the Arts Council did not have a \u201csettled sense\u201d from the outset of what it wanted from the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese deviations from the original plan were not properly considered nor adequately risk-assessed by the governance structure for the project, highlighting significant failings at below board and board level.\u201d<\/p>\n

For its review, the committee interviewed 41 stakeholders and considered 1,930 documents. <\/p>\n

It said the council provided all specific documents and information requested, but was critical that \u201ccertain documents identified in the course of interviews were not provided upfront and were obtained from other parties\u201d.<\/p>\n

The review found a pattern of decisions not coming to the board for approval, \u201cexcessively detailed papers being submitted to the board which were difficult to interpret, and a lack of engagement at key points of the project\u201d. <\/p>\n

The committee believed a board with a broader range of governance skills among its members at key points \u201cwould likely have resulted in more rigorous oversight of the project\u201d.<\/p>\n

It noted, however, the importance of the Arts Council and \u201cits invaluable work\u201d, that there was a strong sense of public service among its personnel, and that since June 2024 there have been several \u201cnotable changes to board practices and procedures\u201d.<\/p>\n

The committee submitted the review to Minister for Culture Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> on January 5th. He is expected to bring it to Cabinet on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Arts Council has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

Maura McGrath<\/a>, who chairs the council, has previously said she would \u201crigorously\u201d pursue any measures and reforms needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arts Council needs a more \u201cfit-for-purpose board\u201d with skills in governance, human resources and law and \u201cnot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22810,61,60,121655,43,6232],"class_list":{"0":"post-240179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-arts-council","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-maura-mcgrath","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-patrick-o-donovan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}