Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have not been sitting on the fence on this. I really hope that the research will point to it being rolled out to all artists. Just doing the pilot itself is a signal to the world of how we as a country really truly value our artists. That is why I was determined to get this pilot scheme up and running. The research to date shows that it is making a difference but we will have to see more and more regarding the creative output and so on. It has been an amazing project in that it has given us data on artists for the first time, including where and who they are, what type of artforms exist in Ireland and the percentages in each category. It is a three-year pilot. I hope that at the end, the research will show this.