Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to hear that and know they will impress on the Minister the stark findings contained in their report. The latest analysis indicates that two thirds of workers in the sector are earning less than €20,000 per year, 60% of artists and arts workers have neither health insurance nor private pensions, and 74% of performing artists and creative practitioners are reliant on another source of income. The Arts Council reports that 48% of professional artists have considered abandoning their career in the arts over the past year, with lack of income and financial pressures being cited by 70% of them as the main reason.

Another stark finding which I am sure the Minister will be discussing tomorrow is that, a decade on from the financial crisis, Government investment in the bodies that underwrite the artistic output of the nation, including the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, Creative Ireland and others, has barely recovered. Ireland continues to languish on the bottom rung in terms of investment in culture in Europe. When does the Minister envisage we can move on from the firefighting and the recovery from disaster of the past 20 months and reach the level of funding that used to be in place prior to the economic crash of ten years ago?

See this speech in context