Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister and the Minister of State on their new roles. I look forward to working with them over the coming months and for however long this Government lasts.

I get a sense from the Minister that she has a strong understanding of all the difficulties the arts sector faces and I am encouraged by that. The programme for Government states that as part of the July stimulus, there will be funding and initiatives for the arts sector. Is what we heard today part of the stimulus? I am concerned about packaging. Will there be an announcement later this week or next week where what has been said today will be repurposed or repackaged? We had a meeting of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response a couple of weeks ago. I know that Deputies Ó Snodaigh and Gannon were there. It was one of the more memorable sessions of the committee. Representatives from the arts sector came to tell us just how difficult financially, emotionally and psychologically this pandemic has been for their entire sector. I am sure they are listening to this session as they do every time the arts have been raised in the Dáil since the pandemic hit. When they take down figures and measure it against the programme for Government, they will want to know without uncertainty if this is the July stimulus or if further initiatives will be announced later in the month.

At that meeting of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response were representatives for workers in the arts industry who are funded through the Arts Council. I welcome the additional funding for the Arts Council in this Revised Estimate. There are also workers in the industry who are not funded through the Arts Council, such as sound engineers. At the committee, the wonderful night of fundraising and the national broadcast that took place a couple of weeks ago were referred to. There was a performance by Hozier from the middle of the pitch in Croke Park. It was visually stunning, it sounded stunning and it was a high point of that evening. All the workers who put that together were not funded by the Arts Council.

Is the Minister or her Department working on anything that will target those workers in the arts who are fundamental to literally keeping the show on the road?

The programme for Government mentions how important night-time culture is and how difficult it will be with physical distancing, etc. It stated the intention to establish within the first 30 days of Government a night-time economy task force which I know will have an economic remit beyond what we are discussing today. The wording in the programme for Government is that it will have some remit to protect night-time culture. We are 11 days into this 30-day commitment. What has been done to establish this task force?

See this speech in context