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

The true history of the attitude of successive Irish Governments to culture, arts, music and events, and to the crews that stand behind them, is a history of lip service without tangible support. That is most obviously reflected in the fact that we spend one sixth of the average spend across Europe on funding arts and culture. The events and music sectors have never received a penny, essentially, and there was even no engagement until they began to get themselves organised in the last few months through groups such as EPIC, the event production industry Covid-19 working group.

I sought the first debate in the House on arts and culture after the pandemic, and then requested that groups such as EPIC and the National Campaign for the Arts appear before the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response. Since then, the level of lip service in the House to arts and culture has grown exponentially. There is no doubt about that. After the virtual silence about arts, culture, music and events, there has been a cacophony. The level of lip service and rhetoric that has been expended in saying how much people love the arts and music and how much they contribute to our culture and society is almost a cultural event in itself. Never have we needed them more than in the utterly grim situation we now face.

However, lip service has still not been matched by tangible support. In fact, apart from a few paltry million euro that was added to the funded sector, still bringing it nowhere near the European average expenditure on that, nothing has been given. One million euro for music is just an insult, to be honest, compared to the contribution musicians make. In fact, when one looks at the entire issue, the cuts the Government has imposed to the PUP and the wage subsidy mean it has given a little token and taken it all back. The PUP payment and the wage subsidy are the payments from the Government that reach everybody in those sectors, that is, all the crew people, the musicians, artists, performers and all the people who have lost work. It is the payment they all received. Frankly, it was not enough and it was not tailored in such a way that they could do some work on top of it, if they were lucky enough to get a little work. However, at least they all received it. That is the thing the Government has cut. All the groups representing arts, music and culture, including EPIC, the Events Industry Alliance and the National Campaign for the Arts, have asked the Government to restore and retain the PUP and income subsidy payments and, indeed, to allow people to earn a little above that. That is the key issue.

Beyond that, there is the question of whether the Minister will give grants to cover the ongoing costs of insurance, repayments and all the other ongoing costs people are still incurring even though there is no work for them. Is the Minister going to give scaffolding funding for the reduced capacities, or no capacity, in venues? That is the question. So far, it has been lip service rather than tangible commitments. Frankly, the engagements appear to be tokenistic and, according to some of the reports I am hearing, that is precisely what they are. Of course, all those connected to the industry in indirect jobs, the 35,000 jobs and others beyond that such as in the taxi industry, are all asking the same questions as to how they will be able to pay their bills and rent and whether they will be able to survive. One company involved in music wrote to me today. It gives work to 300 musicians and asked twice for the wage subsidy, but was refused twice. I do not know how it does not qualify. It is unbelievable that it does not qualify for these schemes. Let us stop the rhetoric and deliver the support.

In contrast, there is one exception to all this - the film producers. There is virtually no ongoing employment in the industry, but in the last number of years they have received €668 million in grants, tax reliefs and so forth. It dwarfs what the rest of arts and culture has received. I believe in the film industry, but that is shocking when there are no jobs. Let us support the artists, performers, crews and musicians.

See this speech in context