Mr. David Kavanagh:

I will come in very quickly on Aosdána and income aggregation. I should declare an interest, as my partner of 35 years is a member of Aosdána. Approximately 150 members of Aosdána receive what is called the cnuas, which is a sum of approximately €17,500 per annum, and they receive it in five-year blocks. It is extraordinarily helpful to the individuals involved and gives them a kind of basic income that allows them to survive. Naturally, the problem with Aosdána is that it supports 150 artists and not the 7,000 or 8,000 other artists. At the moment, it is key to the 150 artists. I should point out that the sum of €17,400 is approximately €1,000 less than the average payment made from European Union sources through the Common Agricultural Policy to every farmer in the country. It is not a great deal of money.

The Senator is absolutely right that income aggregation causes a difficulty, although for a very small number of people. The income tax exemption introduced by Charles Haughey in 1968 has been extraordinarily helpful to artists through those years. The cap was reduced and it is now at €50,000 per annum, but 95% of artists do not earn anything close to that income tax exemption cap. The business of income aggregation, while a good idea in principle, relates to a very small number of artists, unfortunately.