New Abbey chair appointment process ‘under way’, as governance report awaited

Selecting a new chair of the Abbey Theatre is “under way at present”, the Department of Culture and Arts has confirmed, while the theatre says plans are “currently being progressed” to send a long-delayed report on its governance to the Arts Council. It is unclear whether the governance report, begun by Crowe consultants in December 2022 and believed to have been completed and sent to the Abbey in December 2023 but still not published, will be sent to the council before the term of the current chair, Dr Frances Ruane, ends on July 28th.

Responding to a public statement this week by the former Abbey Theatre co-directors Graham McLaren and Neil Murray “to address mistaken impressions” about payments made to them in 2021, a Department official told The Irish Times that “primary governance responsibility for the Abbey Theatre resides in the first instance with the Arts Council as principle funder”.

The department said: “The Crowe report was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre as a condition of its Arts Council funding and publication is a matter for the Abbey Theatre.”

The former co-directors’ statement also said they made a protected disclosure to Minister for Arts Catherine Martin in June 2022, a year after departing, saying she declined to pursue an investigation, but “her response was to reappoint Dr Ruane” as chair for two more years, and “to rely on the outcome” of Crowe’s independent review of governance.

The Department official this week said: “Protected disclosures received by the Department are processed in accordance with the relevant legislation. In accordance with confidentiality requirements, the Department makes no comment in response to queries regarding such disclosures.”

[ Former Abbey Theatre directors ‘address mistaken impressions’ about payments they receivedOpens in new window ]

Ms Ruane as chair of the board is a key link to events going back five years, and how the theatre handled two issues – recruitment of new directors at the theatre, and three complaints made by former employees about one of the former directors. Between them, it’s understood handling these issues has cost the Abbey well over €1 million, primarily in legal fees.

Murray and McLaren’s statement this week details the payments made to them, totalling €236,666, and their concern about “spiralling legal costs and related breaches of internal controls” related to these at the theatre. They said they raised their concerns about the costs with the board, Arts Council, Comptroller and Auditor General and the Department of Culture and Arts, while still working at the theatre, before making the protected disclosure to the Minister.

[ Abbey Theatre: The directors, the disclosures, the drama, the moneyOpens in new window ]

The Crowe report on the theatre’s governance is expected to throw light on controversial events since 2019 surrounding the former directors and the board, events that are still overshadowing the national theatre, despite new leadership there.

The Abbey is required to send the governance report to the Arts Council as a condition of its State funding. A percentage of the Abbey’s funding in 2023 and this year was withheld pending receipt of the report. Meantime, the theatre will not have an in-house production on its stage for two months, from July 20th.

The Arts Council said on Friday it had yet not received the report. “We haven’t received the Crowe Report as yet and the Arts Council doesn’t discuss details of its funding relationships with organisations.”