Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is not the first time I have sat in the Chamber and listened to Deputy Ó Snodaigh speak before me on the arts. His family is steeped in the many different parts of the arts. We have debated the arts on a number of occasions in the short life of this Dáil. It feels like we are going over old ground. It is old ground, however, that is becoming more important and more severe for those who are unemployed and want to work again. These people are looking for hope that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. They will not have got much hope if they have been watching the “Claire Byrne Live” show last night when we saw our Deputy Prime Minister take our Chief Medical Officer and the entire board of NPHET to task. When we see incidents such as that, it is an embarrassment to the State but it is especially hard for people in sectors that are going to be, as they say themselves, the last to open. It is massively destabilising when one sees one of the major decision-makers in government engage in such personalised attacks.

It is very destabilising and manifestly so for those in sectors that are on the edges of this pandemic.

Very little has moved. I listened to the Minister's contribution from my office and I am aware that funding is being given in a type of block, high-level format but the people in the sector who are most affected are not seeing it on a week-to-week basis. Those who have to pay rent, bills, support their families and themselves, as well as those who want to live with dignity are not seeing that. That is very worrying.

We should take this opportunity to state that there were issues with this sector prior to the pandemic that are being compounded by what is going on now. The Theatre Forum review in 2019 of pay and conditions in the performing arts indicated that working conditions had not improved in the decade since the living and working conditions of artists report was published in 2010. When parties were saying that they would keep the recovery going in the second half of the last decade when the economy was back up and running, that was not the case for some sectors and the arts was one of those sectors. In a country that professes to value the arts and hold it dear to our hearts, as many of us do, that has not been reflected in the actions of the State.

As we know, art and the arts sector travels extremely well to all four corners of the globe and is received very well. We are viewed as a creative people and as a country that values its creative people but is that really the case? When we look at what has happened in the past decade and the way it has been compounded by this pandemic, I am not sure we can over that statement with any credibility.

On a day where it is indicated that the national minimum wage will rise by a mere ten cent, 72% of artists in Ireland were earning less than the national minimum wage before this pandemic hit. One might ask what is the point in having a national minimum wage, if so many in a particular sector fall below that line.

That brings me to the pandemic unemployment payment, which was very important payment for many workers and very important for people in the arts sector. Deputy Ó Snodaigh spoke eloquently about the impact of the pandemic on a number of individuals. I echo those sentiments. The budget will be next week. We need to see something that is a little more creative and targeted, and people in the arts sector will need to be included in that. We must see the restoration of the pandemic unemployment payment.

We are 100 days into the term of this Government. I am not one for arbitrary targets and I acknowledge that the period of the past 100 days has been unique but those working in the arts believe that the first 100 days posed more questions such as whether it is worth it for them, if they should be breaking their backs in the hope that their sector will be allowed to recover and whether the Government will back them, their group, band, theatre group and industry. I hope it will do so. I am aware efforts have been made. I am not here to simply say everything is desperate and the Minister is not doing anything. I do sense that she is doing something but these workers need to be able to feel that in their pockets next week, the week after that and so on until this pandemic is over. They are struggling to survive and pay their bills and they need help from the Government.

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