Ms Emilie Conway:

I thank Senator Seery Kearney for raising ableism. I am sure we are all familiar with the Einstein quote that we cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that creates it. In a way we could sum up all of this as the exclusion of disabled people. It is non-disabled thinking that has created all of these problems for us. We absolutely need to be integrated from the bottom up. The National Campaign for the Arts in its pre-budget submission included an action plan for addressing these issues along with the idea of a universal basic income for disabled artists. We were pleased to see the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland has put in place a pilot scheme. We are very supportive of it.

When we spoke about looking outside of Ireland, I recalled that either Australia or New Zealand has a form of auspicing whereby if a disabled artist gets an award, it is not given to the person. The organisation trickles out the money in accordance with how it is able to keep supports. We are against this because it upholds structures of poverty for disabled people as people earn only €140 a week. It is also infantilising, which is a very common practice with disabled people. They do not have their own money. We think of Brittany Spears. They are not allowed to have it and it is just given to them when it is decided. It is also a cap on artistic creativity because it tells people they can earn only €140 multiplied by 52, which is approximately €7,000. They could only do work to the value of €7,000 a year. Do we really want to say to disabled artists who may be having a prolific year that they are not allowed to create work because they will not be supported because of an auspicing plan. I want to put that to bed straight away.

I recommend that there are quotas in organisations to get disabled people in at every level, particularly in the arts. In a way, art is almost like the conscience of a culture. We process everything that is happening and put it back out in creative work. It is very important to have quotas. I suggest there should be a funded position in every organisation on equality, diversity and inclusion. A disabled person with living experience should constantly inform the organisation. Accessibility is a living experience. As we probably see here, experiences of accessibility are unequal. They are unequal throughout the country. Living in Dublin might be better than in Cork. It is so unequal and unregulated that we need to have a disabled person or two in every organisation that can inform equality, diversity and inclusion with living experience. In the arts I would say it needs to be an artist and that it is done through process-led creative work in the organisation.

The committee received a submission from Aideen Howard on public sector duty. She has been very supportive of all of our work. At present, disabled artists are the lowest demographic to interact with the Arts Council in respect of funding. This is because of the problems we have raised whereby if they get an award, they lose. State organisations are not fulfilling their public sector duty and cannot do so until these barriers are removed.

If people are lucky in love they will lose their supports. From an artistic point of view, chances are an artist will meet another artist and this is so precarious. No artist wants to feel all of their finances and living will be looked into and examined by the Department of Social Protection and that their girlfriend or boyfriend will become a dependant.

It is a romance killer. That should be looked at.