Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Cathaoirleach, the Ceann Comhairle and everyone here in the Oireachtas who organised a very special joint sitting of the Houses. I also compliment the President of Ukraine and offer our unwavering solidarity to the Ukrainian people.

The Minister, Deputy Martin, was here last night to discuss tourism. I did not take the opportunity to welcome the new artists' income scheme that has been announced. A thriving cultural economy is built on the work of people from all backgrounds in our society who have the talent and the means to create art. How do we ensure diversity in that cultural production in the face of rapidly declining incomes and rising property prices and insurance costs? Not only are our artists poor, but they are getting poorer even as the cultural sector becomes more valuable. The harder it is to live as a working artist, the more voices will be excluded from our cultural sector, the more culture will become a playground for people who have money and privilege, and the more it will support the inequalities of our society. The first step towards making our cultural economy thriving and diverse is to make a creative career sustainable. That is why it is very welcome that the Minister and her officials in the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media have put in the work needed to deliver an income scheme. It is something for which we have been calling for a number of years. I commend the National Campaign for the Arts in particular on the work it has put in. It is great to see this coming to fruition. I commend the Minister on that.

I note that Tourism Ireland invited Sacha Lord, the night-time economy adviser for greater Manchester, to be a member of a delegation as part of a link-up between Irish cities, Liverpool and Manchester. It is good to see recognition of the importance of the night-time economy in our cities. This is a step change in terms of Government policy and I again commend the Minister, Deputy Martin, on this. We will all have seen reports at the weekend with regard to reform of opening hours and licensing laws. Nightclubs need their own type of licence which is fit for purpose and workable and which will not involve the barriers to entry we see with regard to the pub industry. There were 522 nightclubs in 2000. There are now 85. That shows the importance of the licensing law reform aspect of the work of the Minister, Deputy McEntee. I would welcome a discussion in this House on those issues.