The Arts Council has written off €5.3m on ‘substandard work’ and an IT system that was ‘not fit for purpose’ while artists try to make ends meet. This has to be the beginning of real change, writes Toner Quinn. [Article irst published in the Journal of Music on 13 February 2025]

There were many surprising and infuriating aspects to the Arts Council’s announcement yesterday, in which it sketched out how it spent €6.675m and then wrote off €5.3m on a new grants management system that never worked, but few satisfactory explanations.