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

I really do not want to stretch this because I know Deputy Doherty wants to get to his amendment. What the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, told me was the direct opposite of what the Minister just said. I do not accept this pass the parcel. I talked to her the other day. I asked questions and she said insofar as the resources allocated to her have been made available, she had put in some supports. That was her point about the €25 million. When it came to the issue of income subsidies, she told me I needed to talk to the Ministers for Finance, and Employment Affairs and Social Protection. That is the truth. This pass-the-parcel stuff is not good enough.

This is why it is totally relevant to this Bill. We need an answer. Will there be an income subsidy for all these people in the arts and music area? It is not just the artists; it includes the crews and so on. It is not just an arts issue. In fact, the events people are very keen to say they are not even defined as arts. It is about income supports for sectors that have been decimated by the pandemic measures. The same point goes for the taxi drivers. I ask the Minister not to pass it off to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. We need to know if the Government is even interested in looking at this. That is the question and an answer would really be appreciated.

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