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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 8 together.

The basic income for the arts, BIA, pilot was a key priority for me as Minister with responsibility for arts and culture. I see this scheme as an important intervention to support the arts sector recover after the devastation wreaked by the Covid pandemic. Covid clearly highlighted both the precarious nature of working in the arts but more so, it shone a light on the importance of the arts for us all. It is well established that artists suffer from precarious incomes. The scheme will research the impact of providing the security of a basic income on the creative practice of artists and creative arts workers.

The pilot was also the number one recommendation of the arts and culture recovery taskforce, which I established in 2020 to examine ways in which to help the arts recover post-pandemic. I was very pleased to have been able to deliver on this recommendation with the first payments on the scheme being made to recipients two weeks ago. A total of 2,000 recipients are being paid €325 a week for three years while 1,000 control group members are being paid €650 per year to engage in the data collection. The scheme will cost €35 million per year and €105 million in total. A total of 1,992 recipients have received their payments to date. A small number of participants have decided not to accept their place on the scheme and these places will be reallocated shortly. It will be weighted in such a way that they will be treated in the same way as the 2,000 original applicants were selected.

The research will examine over a three-year period the impact of a basic income-style payment on artists and creative arts workers. This research element is a hugely important part of the pilot scheme. The scheme recognises that there is a vast body of often unpaid or underpaid time that goes into the making of the creative work that we as a society enjoy. The ambition of the scheme is that by providing the security of a basic income, artists and creative arts workers can focus on artistic work and be in a position to increase their earnings from their creative practice as a self-employed artist or creative. I have established the scheme very firmly as a research project so that an evidence base can be developed around the impact of the policy. The scheme is a randomised control trial that consists of two groups of randomly selected people. The treatment group will receive the basic income while the control group will not receive it. Analysis of the results will involve a comparison of averages between the two groups. As the groups have the same characteristics at baseline and are large enough to be a statistically representative sample, any difference arising during the trial can be assumed to have been caused by the policy. I am very grateful to all the applicants who agreed to participate in the control group. Being able to compare and track their careers against those who will receive the BIA will be essential in demonstrating the impact of the payment on artists and their creative practices.

Participants will be surveyed at least twice a year and will keep a journal so they are in a position to give accurate data. Focus groups, interviews and seminars will also happen to collect more qualitative data on how the scheme is impacting participants' lives. Baselining research information has been received from recipients who have accepted their place on the scheme so that research has already kicked off. Research findings on the impact of the pilot on the individuals and their practices, the sector and ecology of the arts in Ireland will form an important part of the pilot. Data on income and earnings, time use, work and job quality, well-being and mental health will be collected using a longitudinal survey every six months plus focus groups, interviews and art form specific research topics.

The Government wants to give recognition to the value of the arts and the role of creative practice in Irish society. That is what this pilot scheme is all about. It is about addressing the earnings instability that can be associated with the intermittent, periodic and often project-based nature of work in the arts.

I believe that the BIA pilot scheme is a once-in-a-generation, transformational measure in the funding of the arts in Ireland. It makes a strong statement at home and abroad about the value that Ireland as a nation places on artistic practice both for its intrinsic value and in terms of our personal and collective well-being and also in terms of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage.

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