Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. While we would have loved to have the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, with us, he will convey our message to his Green Party ministerial colleague.

As the Minister of State knows, it is almost a year since the arts, culture and live entertainment sectors had to shut down operations. A series of good and positive initiatives have been designed by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to assist them, but this matter relates to the €50 million live entertainment fund announced in budget 2021. We are nearly five months on since that announcement, but I am unclear as to whether we have any additional detail on how the fund will be rolled out and to whom it will apply. While we agree with the Government taking a cautious approach under Covid-19 Resilience & Recovery 2021: The Path Ahead, there should be no excuse for a lack of clarity or full information on this support fund. The essence of a sector such as the live entertainment industry means that it needs time to plan. It also needs confidence in the transparency around how the funding will be allocated. With a degree of horror, we watched the criticisms levelled at the Department last year regarding how the music industry stimulus package was allocated.

I am raising this matter in the context of broader concerns for the sector, in particular the stories we are being told time after time by workers and people with small businesses in the live entertainment sector who say they are hanging on by their bare fingertips. Indeed, some people have already exited the sector. Those in the sector still have costs even though they are not operating. They must maintain their insurance because they do not want a break in cover and there are other overheads. Time and again, the response from the Government is to point to the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, and the Covid business aid scheme, CBAS, but many businesses are excluded because those only apply to rateable businesses.I cannot for the life of me fathom why the Government continues with its fixation on rateable businesses. I understand there have to be criteria and that the public finances need to be protected, but I do not understand why the Government, having listened to months of criticism from all of us in the Opposition and within the Government, remains fixated on rateable businesses. There are alternatives. There were 212,007 active VAT traders in the country in 2019. Surely VAT could be the metric, the anchor on which businesses could be targeted for support. In 21st century Ireland, it is not acceptable to suggest that a business has to operate from a premises with a shopfront. Thousands of businesses operate from a back room, which goes back to the issue of rateable businesses.

My initial question was regarding the €50 million fund. It is very welcome but we need to see detail of how and when it will be rolled out and to whom it will apply.