Ms Angela Dorgan:

It is incredibly useful, important and welcome.

It means people can earn up to €480 on top of their payment over a month, which is incredibly useful. It brings people nearly to the PUP rate prior to the cut. For us, it would be amazing if it was €350 plus €480. There were up to 500 artists at our Zoom events and they said their activity was almost frozen. They were afraid to come off the PUP in case they did not get back on it, even if they got little spurts of work, such as a week at a festival, because they knew would they need support again and these events are so few and far between, with even online events being sporadic. We have to be fair. There has to be an opt-in element for artists and if we make an online event available, maybe some of them will not want to do it, and that is okay too.

That new addition is welcome, although it would have been amazing to have it on top of the €350 for the individual. I agree with the Deputy. There are so many nights that we would have done at De Barra's and in Leap, and that is where we cut our gig teeth. I am from Cork city but many buses went up and down to Leap. It is great that Sam McNicholl and all the people in De Barra's and Connolly's can now apply for funding to try to be a little more imaginative, although they will be restricted depending on whether we are in level 2, 3 or 4. There is an excitement in that as well and, as the Deputy said, when they start programming again, there will still have to be musicians who can afford to work in music.

All artists and musicians are used to living in the gig economy. However, we have to do better by them than a bit of a bursary here and a bit of social welfare there, while allowing them to earn up to a certain amount. We owe them more than that. With regard to the PUP staying at €350, some mechanisms are being looked at by the task force that could allow it to be combined. To answer the Deputy’s question directly, it is very welcome but it would have been great to see it on top of the €350.