Mr. Shane Dunne:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to it today on behalf of EPIC. Members may not know who we are. That is not surprising; the live event industry has prospered for decades with little State intervention and no State aid. We have never needed the State's help before. We have never received funding from the Arts Council or any Department with responsibility for arts or culture. Live events continue through wars, they raise money to help in times of famine, they raise the spirits of a nation in times of need, and they provide a focus in times of celebration. We are, and should be, invisible. If we have done our job well, performers will never know we were there. They just walk on stage and speak into a microphone, with the lights shining on them, the autocue lined up, and the cameras rolling, at an Ard-Fheis or other event, and their words appear on the RTÉ news that night. We must retain the skills built up in our sector in order to maintain that standard of service to Ireland. Now, however, we are in a crisis created by the restrictions required to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The industry we love so much is on its knees. Never in the history of staging live performance and events has there been such a sudden and total stop to work in Ireland as happened on 12 March 2020. Now we need to step out of the shadows backstage and shine a light on our needs; no longer can we afford to be invisible.

Please do not confuse us with the funded arts. We greatly welcome the funding recently administered through the Arts Council but that funding will not make its way to the businesses and staff supported by this working group. The non-funded live entertainment and arts sector accounts for a vast multiple of both ticket sales and turnover by comparison with the funded sector. This is a much bigger business.

This past weekend should have been one of the busiest our industry has seen. In excess of 500,000 people would have been attending events from those at Marlay Park and Live at the Marquee to those at Malahide Castle and Irish Independent Park, to name but a few. The vast majority in the events industry work in annual cycles. The sector has lost an entire year's turnover, not just that of a few months. This was lost when most financial reserves were at their low point leading up to St. Patrick's Day, the start of the usually busy summer season.

The live entertainment industry is a business of innovators, entrepreneurs and creators. We are commercial, profit-making entities, and we are happy with that. We risk our own money to build businesses. These businesses span the length and breadth of the country. Some 65% of them are based outside the greater Dublin area. Among them are businesses such as: Made for Stage in Limerick, Event Power in Thurles and Donohue Marquees in Carlow; venues such as Róisín Dubh, the Spirit Store, Cyprus Avenue and the Gleneagle INEC Arena; and festivals such as Sea Sessions in Bundoran and the Vodafone Comedy Carnival in Galway.

This industry touches every part of the island. Our reach is far and our actions are seen worldwide; the process leading to Ireland's seat on the UN Security Council started as a comment during a U2 show and visits of United States President Barack Obama, the Pope, and, historically, the Queen of the United Kingdom were all facilitated by our industry. All over the world, the Ireland brand is sold using the festivals, events and entertainment provided by our industry and the funded arts community.

The funded sector is starting to see supports provided and now the non-funded sector must be addressed too. Events keep both local and national community spirit alive, from vintage steam rallies to the St. Patrick's Day festival, and from the National Ploughing Championships to the Electric Picnic festival. Unless workers are protected and skills retained, the sector will not be able to play its valuable and considerable part in rebuilding Ireland’s spirit and economy.

We are an integral part of the cultural fabric of society. The live entertainment industry is an ecosystem and all aspects are needed for it to survive. We should consider the talent of the artist, the venue or the promoter and the contractors and crew to pull it all together. For every €1 spent on a ticket in Ireland, there is €6 spent as a result in the wider hospitality and tourism sectors. Live events were directly responsible for over 3 million bed nights per year, according to the latest pre-Covid figures.

In the past, in running a large scale event in Ireland, we had to look abroad but we do not do that any more as we have an indigenous workforce here that is the best in the world. World tours start here because the artists know that the people they will work with are highly skilled. Just last Friday, as part of Comic Relief, Hozier, a brilliantly talented Irish artist, stood on the pitch in Croke Park to give a performance that is now being lauded worldwide. It had an Irish lighting company, an Irish lighting designer and an Irish director.

For decades, when money was needed to be raised for a charity, we were asked to help. Now, for the first time, we must ask for help and support. We were one of the first industries to shut and we will be the last to return to full capacity. This is why we are asking for the supports in our submission.

This is an industry filled with people who have forged their own path, highly skilled and dedicated people who invest their own time and their own money to create events and experiences to allow others to make memories that will last a lifetime. The people who work on live events understand, probably more than most, the requirement to keep the public safe. It is what we do on a daily basis through every action and decision we take. We depend on the well-being and happiness of our audiences to pay our wages. We are not asking for a hand-out but we do need some help now so that in turn, we can drive the rebirth of our economy by recovering the spirit and optimism of the nation. I thank the committee.