Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House. I fully support the concept of a social welfare scheme for artists. This is important and long overdue. We need to shape the scheme so that it appreciates the work of artists and supports them to produce work during a meaningful career.

It has come to my attention that the number who have availed of the pilot scheme has been quite low, some 13 artists as of September 2017 and 24 as of 24 January 2018. That is a rate of around four successful applicants per month. I acknowledge that this is a pilot scheme.

As the Minister will know, the scheme is open only to visual artists and writers and not performing artists. As a musician, I wonder as do other performing artists why we are excluded from the scheme. Given the nature of their work, visual artists do not produce work with a quick turnaround. Works of art such as books of poetry, novels, sculptures, paintings, etc., can take years to produce. Under the scheme, the artist will have to be registered as self-employed with the Revenue Commissioners and be able to demonstrate that at least 50% of his or her income has been derived from his or her art in the preceding year to be eligible for the pilot scheme. The artist's status as self-employed under the scheme is reviewed every year. When one considers this condition in the context that visual artists do not necessarily produce completed work every year and the lack of artist focused copyright legislation, which of itself does not produce much of a long-term income in terms of royalties, it means that the chance of generating 50% of one's income from one's work is unrealistic. The model also works on the notion that there are full-time, secure jobs available for visual artists. That simply is not the case and has never been a reality in the sector in our time. That may have been the case at a time when painters or musicians were employed by the elite of society, but not today. Work in the arts in Ireland can be precarious by nature, on a contract or project basis, rather than secure long-term contracts.

The model of the pilot scheme treats artists as jobseekers who should be seeking employment and, therefore, consistent incomes. That would mean that artists, after a year without producing works, should take any employment offer and training courses offered by INTREO, including classes such as CV preparation, job-searching or referral to JobPath, Tús and jobs clubs.

Most, if not all, of Ireland’s notable writers and visual artists, such as Joyce, Wilde, the Yeats brothers, Beckett and so on, all produced works that took longer than one year to create or write. I reassert that I am fully in support of the notion of a social welfare scheme for artists. It is commendable that such a pilot scheme has been launched. However, has the Minister considered why the participation rate is so low? I genuinely believe, from discussions with writers and visual artists, that this pilot scheme is not fit for purpose and a future scheme would need to be restructured.