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

I thank the Deputy. The opinions of the MEAI are, as I said, included in the over 500 submissions I have received and will be considered by the Department. The fairness to which the Deputy referred is at the heart of the scheme. It is important to note that applications for the basic income for artists, BIA, scheme will involve a non-competitive process. Therefore, once a person satisfies the eligibility criteria he or she will be included in a randomised selection process. I wish to again state that this is a pilot research project and we hope to learn from it. There was strong support at the stakeholder forum that new and emerging artists should have access to the scheme and be in a position to focus on their practice from the outset of their careers.

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