Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. The music, entertainment, arts and cultural sectors are probably among the worst hit. The definition of their work is performance with an audience and that has meant they have not been able to operate. Some businesses have lost 80% and some have lost 30% but a lot of the performing sectors have lost 100% of their outlets, ability to work and livelihoods. It is not just their loss of livelihood but for us there is a loss of entertainment, inspiration, hope, culture and creativity in all of our lives. A price cannot be put on that but we all know it is a massive loss to us as a people.

In recognising that, the Government has introduced a number of measures, initially on a test basis in the July stimulus to try to see what might work. There was a €1 million pilot music stimulus package for funding schemes that were designed in conjunction with the music industry to see how it might be possible to support music venues or genres in this difficult time. There is also a €5 million pilot - again it is a pilot to see what works and then we can scale it up - live performance support scheme, which the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht set up to assist commercial venues, producers and promoters of live performance to provide employment to workers in the creative industries.

Recognising that we need to go further, the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Catherine Martin, has established a new task force for the recovery of the arts and cultural sector under the chairmanship of Clare Duignan. The task force, which met for the first time this week, includes culture, the arts, the audiovisual industry and the live entertainment industry, with the events industry alliance having two representatives on the task force. It has critical work to do to answer the question of how we will get our arts and entertainment industries through the worst of the pandemic.

On the pandemic unemployment payment, the difficulty is whether we can do something specific. It is difficult to apply universal social welfare payments down to specific areas but the Government has set up a cross-departmental task force to develop a clear approach, informed by the views of all stakeholders, to protect and sustain the arts and cultural sectors. That will play a key role as part of the development of the national economic recovery plan, which will have to come after the budget and complement and work with whatever is done in the budget to get our entire economy through this difficult period, but specifically the sectors which are hardest hit.

It is younger people and people in the entertainment, hospitality, arts and other sectors who are worst affected by this crisis and we need an economic recovery plan that specifically targets them in whatever way it can. I know my colleague, the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Catherine Martin, is talking to all of the people in the sector to try to get that right and I know the Taoiseach and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform have similar views that this has to be the focus of our attentions. I commit to that for those in Tipperary and beyond.

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