Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The tourism, arts, culture and sport are integral parts of the fabric of society, supporting economic activity and physical and societal well-being. The public facing and audience driven nature of those sectors means that each time there is an escalation for any county in the level applicable under the living with Covid plan those sectors will be hardest hit. The Government is acutely aware of these challenges.

The need for important public health measures, such as social distancing, has placed necessary limits on gatherings to protect public health. This has had a devastating impact, which the Government and I, as Minister with responsibility for tourism, culture, arts, the Gaeltacht, sports and media, have sought to address in a range of ways. Some key measures have been introduced to help support the tourism, arts, culture and sports sectors, including an additional €25 million for the Arts Council, a €5 million live events pilot grant scheme, €5 million to support national cultural institutions and nationwide arts infrastructure, the stay and spend tax credit initiative, a €26 million adaptation grant for the tourism sector, a €10 million grant for coach tourism, €40 million for the three main field sport its bodies, the GAA, IRFU and FAI, and a €15 million resilience fund for sports governance bodies and clubs.

The universal income support of PUP and the wage subsidy scheme have been key to supporting sectors through this crisis and the extension of these schemes has provided certainty for the coming months. My officials and I are in regular contact with stakeholders and representatives in all of the sectors for which I have responsibility. I have established a number of sector specific task forces. I have considered the views and recommendations of these task forces in the context of budget 2021 and the development of the national economic plan, and will review and refine existing support as required. I intend to continue this collaborative process with stakeholders in order to ensure the sectors remain viable and resilient as we continue to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

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