Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the conditions for receipt of Aosdana’s Cnuas; if it is specifically for younger, unestablished artists; and if he will provide some information as to who receives it. [51163/12]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)
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The Arts Council established Aosdána in 1981 to honour those artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland and to encourage and assist members in devoting their energies fully to their art. Membership of the organisation, which is by peer nomination and election, is limited to 250 living artists who have produced a distinguished body of work. Members of the organisation must also have been born in Ireland or have been resident here for five years.

Members of Aosdána are eligible to receive a 'Cnuas' from the Arts Council, a tax- free means-tested annuity for a term of five years to assist them in concentrating their time and energies in the full-time pursuit of their art. The eligibility criterion for the payment of the cnuas requires that a recipient may not have other earnings in excess of € 25,755 (one and a half times the value of the cnuas). Cnuas recipients are therefore allowed to receive income from other sources so long as it does not take their earnings above this threshold. When a member makes an application for the Cnuas they must provide a signed declaration stating that they do not have other earnings in excess of the eligible threshold.

As with all elements of Arts Council expenditure, the payment of the Cnuas is independently managed by Council and is not a matter in which I have a statutory function.

Details of the current membership of Aosdána and a schedule of those members in receipt of the Cnuas are available on the Arts Council website at www.artscouncil.ie.

The table below shows my Department's grant-in-aid to the Arts Council along with funding provided by the Arts Council to Aosdána over the five year period from 2007-2011. My Department does not award funding directly to Aosdána.

*Comprises the Cnuas (the stipend paid to Áosdána members in need of financial support), pension contributions and administration costs .