Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Four years after the Taoiseach made his commitment, funding for the arts has increased by 15% or 16% but it still stands at 0.1% of GDP. We are nowhere near being on a trajectory to double arts funding. In People Before Profit's budget submission for the past three or four years, we proposed doubling the arts budget, which would have enormous benefits for this country economically and socially as well as for artists. What else would the Arts Council say given that it is dependent on funding from the Minister? It will not say anything too loudly against her. The National Campaign for the Arts expressed considerable disappointment at the increase in funding.

I have repeatedly raised the issue of film crews. We need to do something about the fact that €80 million goes into film every year and nobody in the sector has any security because of the designated activity company, DAC, structure through which the money is filtered. Something needs to be done to address that and to give income and employment security to film crew. More generally, we need to look after our artists.

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