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

Is cúis áthais dom í a bheith anseo sa Seanad an tráthnóna dorcha Nollaig seo chun labhairt faoi na healaíona agus faoin chultúr, go háirithe an earnáil cheol beo agus an earnáil siamsaíochta. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis na Baill as an deis seo labhairt leo maidir leis na tacaíochtaí atá curtha i bhfeidhm agam don earnáil fíorthábhachtach seo.

I am fully aware of the severe difficulties being faced by live performers and all artists as a result of the pandemic and my Department and I have engaged extensively with stakeholders to understand these challenges and put in place supports for the sector. From 7 December, new necessary measures to protect public health were introduced and included restrictions on capacities for live indoor performance. In response to this, the Government agreed to a €25 million increase in funding, bringing the provision for the live performance sector to €50 million in 2022. In addition, I have provided €4 million for the night-time economy in 2022.

Restrictions impact very particularly on the viability of live performances and therefore, the Government has increased and expanded horizontal supports from across the Departments including the employee wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and the Covid restrictions support scheme, CRSS, and extended the local authority rates waiver to the end of March next year. The pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, has been amended and reopened to support people who lose their employment from 7 December as a result of the new restrictions. These areas are the responsibility of the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe, Humphreys, Darragh O'Brien and the Tánaiste, whom I have also engaged with extensively on behalf of the hard-hit sectors I represent. This evening, I intend to give the House details of the supports provided by my Department.

The epidemiological situation is such that we are not where we expected to be at this point. We as a Government have had to take the very difficult decision to introduce restrictions by limiting capacity on the live performance sector to 50% of seated capacity, as well as the closure of nightclubs. In 2020 and 2021, the live performance support scheme, LPSS, and the local live performance support scheme, LLPSS, operated by local authorities on behalf of the Department, were instrumental in making it possible for thousands of artists, crew and workers in the arts, culture, live music and entertainment sector to engage in thousands of days of paid work, when it would have not otherwise been economically viable. This support has been far-reaching across the country and across the sector. I will share some results with the House now.

The pilot live performance support scheme in 2020 provided support to 59 separate promoters and producers, totalling more than €5 million. The live performance support scheme in 2021 supported 239 promoters, venues and producers in every corner of Ireland. My officials are currently gathering information on activity generated to provide a final report. However, based on information provided today, we can say that more than 32,000 people have been employed through this scheme, with more than 53,000 employment days created. Under the local live performance support scheme, grants were awarded to all 31 local authorities. Senators will probably be aware of this scheme but may not know that it is an initiative of my Department. It has proved incredibly popular and my Department has received very positive feedback on phase 1 of the scheme and the launch of phase 2 was very much welcomed. Its popularity stems in part from the fact that it reaches local musicians, artists and performers that may not have benefited from the LPSS itself. Based on the feedback gathered so far, more than 4,000 people have been employed during phase 1, with more than 6,000 days of employment created.

Under the commercial entertainment capital grant scheme, a total of 88 grants of up to €25,000 each have been awarded to venues, performance facilities and private sector classes throughout the country for Covid adaptation improvements, including ventilation. These grants have been paid out this week and will undoubtedly be welcomed by a sector which strives to make venues and performance spaces the safest possible for audiences.

Under phases 1 and 2 of the event sector Covid support scheme, 480 grants of up to €50,000 each were awarded in 2021. This is targeted support for SMEs operating in the events sector, including event managers, service providers in lighting, sound, stage equipment, fencing equipment, security and catering. Funding for this scheme amounts to €11.5 million and was provided via transfer from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Under the music and entertainment business assistance scheme, MEBAS, which comprised of MEBAS I, MEBAS II and MEBAS phase 2, more than 1,000 grants were approved during 2021, with amounts ranging from €1,500 to €5,000. This scheme supports sole traders, partnerships or incorporated businesses in the sector to include musicians, bands, DJs, sound, lighting, audio engineers, stage managers, and stage technicians. The sum of €1 million was allocated to the St. Patrick's Festival 2021 for arts programming, supporting more than 3,500 days of employment for performers, producers, artists, technicians, creatives and support staff.

My Department opened up stream D of the Cultural Capital Scheme 2019-2022 in July 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is open to not-for-profit arts and culture organisations. Stream D is specifically for any capital adaptations or equipment necessary to assist arts and culture organisations in reopening safely after Covid-19 and to help prevent its spread. To date, €977,000 has been allocated to 104 arts and culture organisations with €818,000 of this paid to 100 organisations.

The outdoor public space scheme was introduced to help local authorities open up and create public spaces and facilities dedicated to the arts, culture and festivals. The scheme was developed in consultation with the County and City Management Association and with input from Fáilte Ireland. Projects must demonstrate how they will support the night-time economy. Each local authority can apply for up to €250,000 under the scheme. To date, 18 local authorities have been awarded funding of more than €4.4 million under this scheme.

I also provided a very important support for well-being in the sector. There is no doubt but that the mental health of the nation is taking a battering under Covid-19. If anything, this is much more acute for artists who have a compelling need to perform their art. I provided €230,000 to Minding Creative Minds, a free counselling service available to every individual in the creative sectors.

The package of supports for €50 million that I announced last week included a reactive support for events that were due to take place in December and January to minimise cancellations and to provide support where these are unavoidable. The new supports for the sector include €5 million for the seasonal musical theatre and pantomime scheme. This fund will increase from €2 million to €5 million and the turnover requirement is being reduced to €100,000 from €300,000 with applications being accepted until the end of January 2022. This scheme is now open for applications. Funding has already begun to be paid out to the successful applicants this week.

A total of €20 million has been provided for another strand of the live performance support scheme, LPSS 3, specifically to support performances in December and January which may need to be cancelled, curtailed or rescheduled. This non-competitive scheme will open for applications tomorrow, 17 December. Venues, including nightclubs that stage live performances, producers and promoters can apply for up to 50% of their eligible costs. A minimum of €14 million is being provided for another strand of the live performance support scheme, LPSS 4, to support performances being staged from February 2022 to June 2022. This scheme will open in January 2022, and gives venues and promoters some certainty that they can continue to run financially viable live performances with our support across the sector for the first half of the year. With this money, they can continue to employ musicians and the people who help behind the scenes. Further assessments will take place as we continue through to the new year.

The sum of €5 million is being provided for local authorities to support local artists and performances through the local live performance support scheme. This will include funding for community and local pantomimes. A total of €5 million is being provided to continue the capital supports scheme, the commercial entertainment capital grant scheme, CECGS, to venues, including for ventilation upgrades and other Covid adaptations. Stream D of the cultural capital scheme for not-for-profits will continue as long as the pandemic restrictions are extant. The sum of €1 million will again be provided to the Saint Patrick's Festival 2022 to employ artists and arts workers. A further extension of MEBAS, which supports businesses in the music sector, will be announced in January. The current phase 2 of this scheme has provided grant support to businesses to cover costs up to the end of December. The Minding Creative Minds well-being initiative will continue to be funded.

The rationale behind these schemes is to provide employment opportunities for artists, musicians and crew. Thousands of days of employment were generated by the schemes over the summer and autumn when other activity was restricted due to public health measures. I am confident that the new strands of the schemes will give much needed employment to musicians, artists and arts workers again, including in the nightclub sector. I am committed to supporting the live performance and the nightclub sector as it journeys through this really difficult phase. The schemes aim to be as flexible, responsive and timely as possible in that regard.

In 2021, I allocated a record €130 million to the Arts Council. The council has been doing extraordinary work in getting this funding to artists and arts organisations across the State.It would take many hours to elaborate and itemise the interventions made by the Arts Council with this money but here is a flavour. The council provided funding for 12 organisations that protected them from closure, with €1.7 million from the emergency stability fund, with over €8 million awarded through the agility award to over 1,800 individual artists, and with €4.3 million in capacity building support scheme funding for 248 organisations. It enabled artists to better reach the public with a series of digital skills webinars and a toolkit. Maureen Gaffney chaired Surviving or Thriving well-being webinars, which was and is a particularly important intervention. The Arts Council also oversaw a 239% increase in approved bursaries and an increase of 412% in the value of the bursaries in 2021. Some 189 new schools joined the Creative Schools programme in 2021, alongside 164 schools which are continuing their second year of the programme. Over 265 creative artists, practitioners and associates are engaged in the initiative.

As a former music teacher, a singer and as someone who has busked many a time in Dublin's Grafton Street, like so many musicians and music lovers in this House, I have been distraught at the damage done to our arts during the pandemic. This is just a snapshot of the work my Department and the Arts Council have done to support the sector throughout this Covid-19 crisis. I guarantee that it is support that will continue unabated so long as the sector needs it.