Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

Again, it is unambiguously positive. It is positive for the artists who participated and for society as a whole. It provides some sort of halt or counterpressure to the drain of mass emigration of many of our most creative young people who are effectively being driven out of here by the cost-of-living crisis and are going to live in less expensive but creative cities which is sucking the energy and life out of many of our cultural scenes.

Is the Minister in favour of the expansion of this scheme to include all who are eligible to participate? This would mean increasing the funding, perhaps even quadrupling it. Another 6,000 artists were eligible for the scheme, having met the criteria, but they lost out on the lottery. We could be getting the benefit of their work as well. Does the Minister agree that there needs to be a new scheme that is open to new applicants so that those who did not apply previously can do so?

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