Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Music and performance are my counter to life in here. If I have had a lousy day or if I am in tears, or whatever, I will go home and lash it out on the guitar or sing, as I always have done. I would probably die without it. The difference is that if I was still working on the road, I would either have moved to America or I would be living at home. That is the benefit of working in here on a good wage compared to friends who live at home. I cannot separate the arts and the struggle of artists from housing in this city.

I wanted to make a point on the local authorities, which I believe should have a bigger role. At the moment they have a similar budget to the Arts Council as a whole, if one counts up the spend across all local authorities. However, the disparity in spend is troubling and ranges from €18 per head of population to 50 cent per head. There are inequalities that need to be addressed, and I do not see this as a threat to Arts Council funding.

What are the witnesses' views of the neoliberal mindset? CSO statistics last year stated that artists were earning 3.5% less in quarter 1 of 2018 than in 2013, and in 2013 Arts Council funding was €60 million. We could throw 25% more money at the Arts Council or the local authorities but wages might not go up. The conversation around the Abbey Theatre should be a trigger. Where the State is involved, we should expect the highest standards. That is what I took from Ms Hynes's comments. I struggle to believe wages will go up unless we make interventions on wages alone.

I wanted to get into the nitty-gritty of art forms, two of which I know well - film, which I studied in GMIT, and music, which I know from life in general. Mr. King mentioned that Austin wanted to keep music at the heart of the town. I was at an event the other night organised by Give Us The Night, a campaign around licensing laws and venues. Many venues, particularly queer spaces where I would dance, are closing and while hotels are being thrown up and the Hard Rock Cafe is due to open next year, we are losing places to dance. The campaign approached the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and tried to make a case around the culture of the night, but we were told: "That is not our responsibility. It is a justice issue."

Some of the campaign's ideas are around staggered opening hours and closing times, places to go and public transport home. It got me thinking around a different idea we have, which IMRO has called for over some time, that is, a music strategy for Ireland. This is something to run with now because by the time Creative Ireland has had its day, in 2022, we should have certain strategies in place, and a music strategy is one of them. I would be reluctant to get involved in arts forms specifically and the Arts Council should play that role. However, I believe music has its place in all of our art forms. Where does Mr. King see the sector, the music industry and emerging artists going? Does he see the need for a music office as a one-stop shop for young or emerging artists? Where does he see the infrastructure of music? Royalties online is obviously a huge issue. Spotify is good compared to YouTube but people would still be left waiting.