Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for coming in today. The session today and the previous session have been very interesting in terms of how we ought to diversify our arts community in our communities. There is a lot of discussion around the universal basic income for artists, who that has been working for and who it has not been working for. I would be interested in delving into that in terms of organisations, communities or people that the organisations here today represent with regard to its accessibility. I know it is only a pilot programme and all of these learnings have to come from it, but we have already heard today from groups for whom it is not working because, for example, it is costing them other supports, and I could hazard a guess as to the people able to access it or be included in it. I was struck by what has been said in terms of people feeling that they even belong to that artistic community, and whether it is working or how it could work for the communities they represent. The whole idea is to create that floor below which people do not fall but if people do not see that as something they would necessarily be a part of, how do we address that?

I think every artist should get a universal basic income and I would go as far as to say there should be a specific universal basic income for certain communities, entirely separate to the universal basic income, but maybe I am making that a little too complicated. I direct that question to all of the organisations.