Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important matter. The basic income for arts pilot schemes will be delivered by my colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Deputy Catherine Martin. The arts and culture task force, established in September 2020, was tasked by the Minister with producing a report to include a set of recommendations on how best the arts and culture sector could adapt and recover from the unprecedented damage arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The task force’s number one recommendation was to pilot a basic income scheme in the arts for a three-year period. As part of the economic recovery plan, the Minister secured Government commitment for the scheme. The Minister allocated €25 million as part of budget 2022 for the launch of the project.

To progress the pilot, the Minister established an oversight group tasked with appraising the recommendations set out in the Life Worth Living report and to advise on the manner in which the basic income for the arts would be delivered. The oversight group considered that the objectives of the pilot should include minimising the ongoing loss of skills in the arts sector, both artists and creative arts workers, and contributing to the sector's recovery post pandemic, with ongoing social, economic, local and national benefits.

The Minister published the report of the oversight group in January and recommended that the Department of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media should take responsibility for the operational delivery of the pilot; that the Department should develop an ongoing research and evaluation programme for the duration of the pilot; that the pilot should focus on professional artists, including developing artists, to ensure artists have the opportunity to focus on their creative practice; that creative arts workers should be eligible, that is, those working in the sector who have an essential creative input into the final output of an artist's practice, for example, screenwriters and directors; that participation in the pilot should be a non-competitive process, which would mean once a person could satisfy the eligibility criteria, he or she would be included in a randomised selection process; and that a control group of unsuccessful but eligible applicants should be established to collect data to underpin a comprehensive ex postappraisal of the pilot.

These proposals were put by the Minister to a stakeholder forum last December which was attended by more than 150 artists and representatives from 50 resource and representative bodies from the arts sector. Following that, the Minister launched a public consultation on the pilot scheme during January. I understand the Department has received a significant number of submissions to the public consultation, reflecting the high level of interest in this new policy intervention. A report on the consultation will be released shortly and the Minister intends to consider the outcomes of that consultation as she finalises the pilot scheme. The purpose of the consultation was to ensure the public, artists and those working in the arts and culture sector have the opportunity to contribute to the policy development for the pilot on key issues such as objectives, eligibility criteria and how to support emerging artists.

Work on finalising the eligibility criteria and online application portal is progressing well on the basic income for the arts pilot. As the consultation process on the policy is just concluding, the launch date for the basic income for the arts pilot scheme has not yet been finalised, but the Minister intends to make an announcement in the coming weeks. The Minister is a fierce advocate for the value of the arts in this country and feels privileged, as Minister for Tourism, Arts, Culture, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, to be in a position to deliver this pilot and to have secured the Government’s commitment for a three-year basic income pilot scheme for the arts. The delivery of the pilot is a key priority for the Minister to underpin the recovery in the arts and culture sector and provide much-needed certainty to the artists and creatives who choose to avail of the pilot scheme.