Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media

Impact of Covid-19 on the Entertainment Sector: Music Entertainment Association of Ireland

Mr. Jackie Conboy:

The MEAI would like to thank the Chairman, the joint committee and the clerk to the committee for their work and for the invitation to the MEAI to attend today to discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the music and entertainment sector. The MEAI would also like to thank most sincerely the members of this committee and Members of the Oireachtas in general who have raised issues relating to this sector and offered their voice and assistance to the association on numerous occasions.

On 12 March 2020, the music and entertainment industry ground to a sudden halt as a result of Covid-19. As the days passed beyond the initial lockdown, it became apparent that as long as social distancing was a requirement to slow the spread of Covid-19, the industry would be at its mercy. As of today, 23 June 2021, we are now on day 469 of lockdown or of severe restrictions which prevent those in our sector from working. On 27 April 2021, the MEAI made a written submission to this joint committee on the Impact of Covid-19 on the music and entertainment sector. In that submission, we highlighted a number of areas of concern for consideration including social protection, banking issues, business supports from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, sector-specific supports from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and guidelines, consideration and provisions for reopening. Since then, the landscape has changed considerably and issues relating to certain topics in that submission require urgent and swift action. These issues are: the proposed cuts to the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, from September and the transitioning of recipients on the lowest rate to jobseeker’s allowance, thus classifying them as unemployed; the need for social protection measures and sector supports when the sector is in a state of phased reopening and for those supports to continue until the sector can function fully without restrictions or social distancing; the fact that the music and entertainment business assistance scheme, MEBAS, contains criteria to which other Government supports are not subject, namely, minimum business costs and publication of recipients; and the fact that Fáilte Ireland guidelines, which state that no live or loud music or performances are permitted, are preventing the sector from a phased reopening process - we would like to see test gigs conducted in licensed premises and social settings so that guidelines can be created for the safe and responsible return of live entertainment in those settings. We recommend that the VAT rate for our sector be aligned with that relating to the tourism and hospitality sector because this would provide a meaningful stimulus and support for the sector when reopening can take place.

There is a great lack of understanding of and various misconceptions about the nature of the music and entertainment sector and how it works. The Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas we have been fortunate enough to engage with over the past 16 months all have an understanding of the severity of the problems and have empathy and sympathy for the situation, but this compassion and comprehension is not necessarily reflected in the slow roll-out of the supports we have been promised up to now. I thank the committee.

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