Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Arts Council has daily contact with arts organisations and artists to understand how Covid-19 is impacting the sector. It has regular updates on its website. It has conducted a good number of surveys and focus groups with funded and non-funded organisations to get feedback on how those organisations are suffering and how the Arts Council can support people going through it. It has set up an expert advisory group, including Lenny Abrahamson, Fintan O'Toole, Dr. Gabriel Scally, Anne Clarke and Angela Dorgan from the National Campaign for the Arts, and Alan Gray, an economist, will advise. They will examine how to advise the Arts Council on the impact of Covid-19. Ultimately, it is about how to support artists during this time. They will report back in about three weeks.

Some of the surveys were very interesting. A survey of 265 arts organisations took place between 23 and 27 March, and another of 1,853 individual artists took place between 3 and 13 April. These surveys showed severe disruption to the sector, with 19,000 paid days lost until the end of April and a loss of €6.4 million in income from cancelled activities until the end of May. The details are on the website. The Arts Council is undertaking much research. From my perspective, the most important thing in securing funding is that it needs to be based on data and evidence. One must show what the actual impact is in financial terms. The Arts Council is independent of my Department but is undertaking much of this work. It is forecasting, surveying and doing a great deal of work like that.

The Deputy mentioned Waterford. All options are being considered. There is merit in some of the considerations he raised and we will certainly try to bring those forward. All the organisations, particularly the Arts Council which supports artists on the ground, have front-loaded much of their money. They will ask the expert advisory group to assess how arts organisations can emerge from the lockdown, implement hygiene and social distancing protocols and explore the safe return to public attendance. The collective national impact of increasing access and mobility will have to be assessed. It is not just a question of the safety of the individual cultural outlet. The road map will also be important in that.

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