Professor Kevin Rafter:

This is my third appearance at the Oireachtas committee with responsibility for the arts in my two years as chair of the Arts Council. These engagements have been very useful and I welcome the opportunity to keep members updated and hear their feedback. Today, I am joined by Maureen Kennelly, the director of the Arts Council.

The arts sector was one of the first to be hit and will be one of the last to recover from the Covid-19 crisis. There was a 54% reduction in GDP in the arts sector in Ireland last year. New Arts Council research, which will be published shortly, shows four in ten artists saw their income decline by more than 50% last year, with the vast majority seeing no improvement in 2021. This is a sector where job security was already precarious and jobs are low paid. The huge negative impact, which first hit in March last year is continuing. We now know the situation will remain in crisis into 2022 for artists and arts organisations.

This time two years ago, the Arts Council's annual budget was €75 million. Today it is €130 million, which is an historic high. A political commitment to increase arts funding was made prior to the pandemic and the impact of this funding will be truly felt when the crisis has passed. For now, the money is the means by which the Arts Council is working to protect the jobs and livelihoods of artists and to assist arts organisations experiencing financial difficulties. The Arts Council used increased public funding to help the sector survive and adapt in 2020 and again in 2021. We will continue to do so in the months to come.

A more detailed report on how the Arts Council has spent its budget will be provided to members shortly. I will now go through some headline statistics. There was a 90% increase in funding applications in 2020 over 2019. Of these, 54% applicants were new to the Arts Council. Almost 3,100 funding applications were approved last year. This is an increase of 129% on 2019. We also provided emergency funding to 190 arts organisations, many of them facing imminent closure, in mid-2020.

Despite the crisis, the Arts Council remains committed to its current strategy and key policies. We continue to be guided by the principles outlined in Making Great Art Work, which is our strategy until 2025. This has a focus on the role of the artist and public engagement with the arts. Our key policies include equality, human rights and diversity. This policy has been incorporated into all of our programmes, schemes and awards. With regard to our pay the artist policy, new research will be published shortly on the experiences of artists dealing with pay and contractual arrangements. A new policy on people, places and spaces will also be published shortly. This builds on initiatives such as creative places and will provide further assistance to the 50 regional arts centres. It will also advance new proposals for flagship artist studio projects throughout the country.

Increased funding in 2022 will allow the Arts Council to assist the sector emerge from the Covid crisis and develop beyond the crisis. I hope 2022 will be a year of recovery. In the meantime, funding will continue to be targeted at jobs and livelihoods as well as at assisting arts organisations in trouble. Funding will assist in implementing our equality, human rights and diversity, pay the artist and spatial policies. Key priorities in 2022 will include expanding the creative places programme in new regions, further assistance to regional arts centres, developing new artists' workspaces throughout the country and promoting new initiatives including arts and well-being.

Many people have been helped through the lockdown by the work of artists. The arts have been the glorious light in the darkness of the Covid crisis. Our world is now slowly emerging from lockdown restrictions notwithstanding the ongoing uncertainties. Even with the capacity limits we are able to embrace the arts again in person. I encourage people to visit our galleries, arts centres, theatres and cinemas over the summer. Ms Kennelly and I will be available to answer any questions and queries committee members might have.