Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

Has the Minister for Finance confirmed that the artists' exemption scheme was not among the 30 such schemes being reviewed? Has the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism made his views known to the Minister for Finance in terms of the secondary benefits to the country? For example, personalities such as Bono, Neil Jordan, Jim Sheridan and even Cecelia Ahern may earn large amounts of money in a particular calendar year but perhaps not earn money in the previous year or the year after. They still earn large amounts of money, and the media tend to portray this as money for artists rolling in on the back of State subvention.

Does the Minister agree it would be beneficial to carry out a cost benefit analysis based for example on the spin-off employment created by the members of U2 remaining in Ireland, with Japanese tourists for example coming to meet their heroes, to meet the writers who inspire them? Such an analysis, possibly commissioned by the Arts Council, would back up the Minister's valid argument that the exemption scheme has benefitted the artistic community in this country. If it could be proven that the scheme provides great economic benefit as well as the social capital, the analysis would put an end to any talk of toying with a cap on the scheme.

See this speech in context