Ms Angela Dorgan:

I will deal with the pandemic unemployment payment issue first and will then defer to Ms O'Donoghue to give the Deputy more robust numbers. The challenge for us with regard to the pandemic unemployment payment is where people were on 13 March. If we think of the events industry in Ireland and artists, arts workers and arts organisations, it is a gig economy but for a lot of people it is also a seasonal activity. Many people who were working or starting to work in the events and festival industry were beginning around St. Patrick's Day and the season typically runs from March to November. Then there are the rest of the arts activities, which are on every day of every month of every year. The number who qualified for the pandemic unemployment payment at the very start and who said they worked in the arts was approximately 14,500. Since the arts is a gig economy, these people might be professional artists, which means they make more than 50% of their income from their artistic endeavour, but because of the poverty most of our artists experience, due to the lack of support, they might have a second or third job. There is a wider question of what chair people were on when the music stopped. The original number on the pandemic unemployment payment was approximately 14,000 and a number of other people were on jobseeker's payments. There were a number of others on the artist jobseeker's payment. There were also people who did not qualify for the first round of the pandemic unemployment payment but then received it prior to 17 September.

All of this comes back to the fear we spoke about, regarding people being afraid to think about work and being frozen because they do not want to move off the support they are on now for fear there will not be other support. At its height, approximately 14,000 people were in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment but I am not sure what the current number is. The actual number who identified as working in arts activities on the day would not give a real picture of how many artists, arts workers, events workers and organisations are in receipt of the payment. Then there are a number of others who were supported through the temporary wage subsidy scheme. Subsequently, during the stimulus, a number of arts organisations were able to get emergency funding to get them to the end of 2020. The employment wage subsidy scheme being extended and more money going to the Arts Council will speak to two levels. I am sorry to sound like a broken record but we keep coming back to the lived experience of the individual. This is with regard to the pandemic unemployment payment being restored to €350 and, perhaps, having a less blunt instrument than the pandemic unemployment payment down the line for those individuals.

I am delighted the Deputy asked about consumers. They should buy more Irish books and music. On Spotify Ireland we have a made in Ireland playlist that we update every Friday with new Irish music. People should follow the links and buy people's records. It would be amazing to do a buy Irish campaign. I remember the one from when I was growing up in the 1980s. I do it anyway since the pandemic. I will only buy Irish food. We are all making an effort to mind each other. People should be aware of how hard it is for actors. The Wexford Opera Festival is coming up and Druid is doing shows at present. When there are events run digitally people should support them. If there is a paywall, people should be aware that art is not free to make for the artist so it should not be free to consume for us at the other end. Of course, all of this is said in the context that all of society is hurting. Nobody is awash with money because of the pandemic. Where and when people can, they should buy Irish and attend events. They should still check the listings of their local art centres because they will have something on. Look at what the National Gallery is doing online. Look at what local galleries such as the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork and galleries in Kerry are doing. There are gigs happening in Dingle. They may not be happening in a bar but they might be happening on Facebook or online.

To answer the question on digital, an increase has been given to the Arts Council to the end of 2020 and it has a rolling fund until 9 November to help organisations pivot to digital. Our organisations will be able to feed in our experiences. Any organisation applying now to digitally pivot may not realise the further needs of digital until down the road. I am sure there are other aspects of the economy that would benefit from having a digital fund available. Our organisations were looking into building digital shops on a portal we already have. It is not a big request for us as an organisation to ask the Arts Council but the 16,000 musicians on our website would not be able to find that increase. I ask people to keep an eye on the digital funds that have already been made available, see what the pilots throw back and then perhaps support them.