Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this issue. In defence of the Minister, I know that at least he has good taste in music because I tend to find him at gigs I go to myself. He has a deep knowledge and interest in the arts and Irish culture and that is to be welcomed.

He does not need to be convinced that support is required for the culture and arts sector in Ireland but it is the nature of that support that we need to discuss. I did not need to be persuaded by the emails we have all received in recent days about the difficult position artists and those in the creative industries more generally find themselves in. I knew that because of my own involvement in the arts. I know the great difficulty people are experiencing now.

There is a strong argument, and I have said it from the get-go, to maintain the top PUP rate of €350 per week to all of those who are working ion the creative industries, including artists, technicians and people working in venues until those venues and the sector itself is more substantially reopened. We know that will be among the last of the sectors to reopen more substantially and we need to prepare for that. I have a significant fear that we are at risk of losing an entire generation of artists and entertainers in this country.

Only a small number of people at the top of the sector make what we might describe as a decent income. Most people working in the arts and culture sector supplement their income by working in hospitality, retail, care and so on. By coincidence, hospitality and some areas of retail happen to be areas that have been absolutely decimated by the economic fallout from the pandemic. Therefore, those working in the arts and creative industries more generally have had a double whammy.

I appeal to the Minister, given his understanding of and interest in the arts, to consider what kind of package could be put together to rescue those who work in the industry. We have all heard the testimony, not just from the emails we have all received, but from friends, family and people we admire and respect about the great difficulty they are in at the moment.

I looked in detail at a scheme that was developed in Denmark to help to support venues. If we do not have the venues, performers will have nowhere to perform when we get through this, as we will. I ask the Minister to take a close look at that to ensure that our physical arts infrastructure is still in place when we get out on the right side of this pandemic. We need to have a generation of artists that are supported by the country. We cannot just offer them tea and sympathy, nor should we just display tokenism towards them. I would never accuse the Minister of that but I ask him to seriously look at putting together a package to support those who work in the industry and the venues involved in the industry until the sector reopens more substantially.

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