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

I do not want to drag this out but what I would like, although it is not about what I would like because I am not in this position and none of us in this room is, but those 23,000 taxi drivers and their families, and at least 30,000 or 40,000 musicians, crew, theatre practitioners, artists and performers of various kinds want an answer before the summer recess. Mary Coughlan wants an answer as to whether she should take the gig in the Mermaid Arts Centre. Will the Minister answer the question? We have been looking for answers on this for weeks. It is not as if it is new. He needs to give them the answers. Why are they not included in the groups of people who can benefit from the income subsidy under the definitions in this section? I am talking to the section. I sought to table an amendment to this section to include this group and it was ruled out of order, again for reasons I do not understand. They should be included.

At this stage, because the Bill will be guillotined and rammed through to make sure everyone can go off on their holidays next week, it seems we cannot do anything about it. Will the Minister at least say we will do something and we will give them a basic minimum income, above and beyond which they can earn without losing it, in the same way as he is now doing for thousands of employers throughout the country? They will get the subsidy, they will be allowed to earn and at a certain point, it will be tapered. Nobody is asking for a handout. They are just asking for a floor below which they will not fall. In the case of some people, they are asking that they will not be whipped into working in unsafe conditions where it might be a threat to their health and public health. These are reasonable asks. They are asking for some of the grant schemes to be made available. They do not qualify for the schemes, even though they have the overheads, because they are not rateable and registered for VAT. Will the Minister please respond to these specific issues? I would not sound so desperate, and my desperation is nothing compared to the desperation these people feel. This is the request.

Many of these people did not ask to be in this position. An awful lot of people who work in the arts would love to be directly employed, as a very small number are in the Abbey Theatre but there are only so many jobs in the Abbey Theatre. Perhaps if we had a proper national film industry, as we used to before we privatised all of the studios, some of these people would have jobs and they would be on the wage subsidy scheme. Some of them have been forced into being self-reliant and then they are punished for this fact. Genuinely, I am not trying to be personal but on behalf of these people, who are desperate, who are worried and who are suffering real mental anguish, will the Minister please give them some hope that he will respond to them before the Dáil finishes for the summer?

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