Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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266. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her views on claims by the live arts sector that the €50 million funding made available to the Arts Council excludes many artists; and her views on the case of a person within the arts sector who had to obtain a loan from a family member due to the fact they cannot afford to let the insurance on their band's van lapse. [9939/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The pandemic has had a devastating impact on the arts and culture sectors. I am very conscious of the unprecedented nature of the challenge facing those in the live performance sector, not least from a financial point of view.

The increased allocation of €50m to the Arts Council brings its 2021 allocation to €130m. The Arts Council is independent in its funding decisions under the Arts Act 2003. It operates within a published ten-year strategic framework entitled Making Great Art Work. The Arts Council supports artists in Ireland through grant funding, project awards, support to individual artists by way of commissions and bursaries. The Council made a significantly higher level of awards in 2020 to individual artists, many of whom had not received Arts Council funding previously. Further details of all Arts Council grantees are available on its decisions database which gives a listing of Arts Council awards 2008–2020 at this link www.artscouncil.ie/funding-decisions/.

In addition to the Arts Council's increase of €50m in 2021 funding, there was an allocation (also) of €50 million made in Budget 2021 for the live performance sector. It is intended that the rollout of the funding would include measures that will build on grant schemes launched under the July stimulus, such as the pilot "Live Performance Support Scheme" and the "Music Industry Support Package". Officials have gained valuable insights from these schemes and will apply these learnings when allocating funding this year.

Other measures are also under consideration including those which have emerged from engagement with the sector and with stakeholders. This engagement is ongoing and it is hoped that further details and decisions will be announced shortly.

My colleague the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has in place a range of business and financial supports available to help businesses impacted by the COVID-19 crisis and these can be viewed at the following link . This includes a new scheme called the COVID Business Aid Scheme (CBAS) which is aimed at those businesses who fall outside the eligibility requirements for CRSS.

Supports such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and the CRSS will continue to be made available to those impacted. The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) is also available to help maintain people in jobs.