evidence: The budget for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the official funding and development organisation for the arts in the North, has fallen from £14.1 million in 2011-12 to £9.7 million in 2023-24, which with inflation represents a cut of about 40 per cent, it says. This works out as a budget of £5.07 per person per year in Northern Ireland, less than a quarter of the sum invested by the Government in the Republic, where the figure is £21.68 per person, according to the council. Even within the UK, the Northern Ireland budget is almost half that in Wales, the point of nearest comparison, which invests £9.45 per person in the arts annually. (Different remits in England and Scotland mean it is not possible to make a valid comparison.) [...] The Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s chief executive, Roisín McDonough, has said: "The government money available here is simply not enough to meet our fundamental objective and one of the Northern Ireland Executive’s priorities – to ensure that everyone has access to the arts."