Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 35, 39, 42 and 50 together.

Since the advent of the crisis, my Department and the bodies under its aegis have continuously engage with the arts and culture sector to best understand the challenges. Officials from my Department have engaged with and had meetings with a broad range of stakeholders including resource organisations, advocacy groups and individual artists and practitioners across the sector. This engagement is ongoing.

In Ireland, the Arts Council is the primary organisation through which Government supports and delivers funding to the arts. In March and April this year, the Council had undertaken surveys of arts organisations and artists to identify the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on audiences, employment and finances. Among the findings to emerge from the surveys was that 12,000 events were cancelled with projected audiences of 2.4 million and that 90% of artists and 85% of arts organisations are affected by cancelled or postponed events.

More recently, my Department also undertook a survey of the sector and put significant effort into ensuring that is was widely disseminated. The results of this survey are being considered at present. I have no doubt that many arts and culture bodies in both Cork and Dublin availed of the opportunity to convey information to the Department and to the earlier Arts Council surveys.