Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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293. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the degree to which she has evaluated the totality of the losses suffered by the various sectors under the aegis of her Department arising from Covid-19 or other reasons; the action taken or proposed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11852/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The public health restrictions at level 5 of the Government's COVID-19 Resilience & Recovery 2021: The Path Ahead will remain in place until 5th April 2021, when a further review will be conducted. These measures have been put in place to protect us all, however I remain acutely aware of the continuing challenge that these restrictions present to the sectors supported by my Department.

The COVID-19 pandemic has utterly changed the operating landscape for the Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. These sectors are the hardest hit by every escalation in the level of restrictions applicable under the Living with COVID-19 Plan and are essentially closed between levels 3 and 5. This has been the situation for these sectors for the majority of 2020 and appears set to continue for some months.

As we set out in the Path Ahead launched last week, we will continue to review the situation based on up to date information on the roll-out of the vaccination programme, information on new variants, levels of virus transmission, and the situation in our health sector. Given the ongoing and evolving nature of this situation, it is not possible to say definitively what the total impact of COVID-19 will have on these sectors.

That said, I have been actively working with and for the sectors within my remit to ensure that they are supported during the pandemic. Throughout these challenging times I and my officials have kept in contact with a broad range of stakeholders and I have established a number of groups and taskforces to ensure that I have the most up to date information about the difficulties facing these sectors. These include:

- The Tourism Recovery Taskforce;

- The Hospitality and Tourism Forum;

- The Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce;

- The Sports Monitoring Group.

In addition to these groups I have established the Night-time Economy Taskforce and the Future of Media Commission, both of which are looking at longer term polices in respect of night time culture and media respectively.

In response to the information I have been given, I have put in place a number of substantial measures to support and strengthen the sectors through 2021. These include:

- A new €55m support fund for strategic tourism businesses;

- VAT on the sector reduced to 9%, will improve competitiveness and viability of businesses;

- New €50m support for live entertainment - a range of supports for live entertainment events to take place in 2021 in venues across the country, other measures to support music, and a new grant scheme for equipment;

- €130m for the Arts Council – a record level;

- Over €78m funding allocation for Gaeltacht and Irish language sector – up €14.8m on initial 2020 allocation;

- Funding for TG4 up to €40.733m;

- Sport Ireland allocated €104.5m – up €36m.

I have also worked with my colleagues across Government to ensure the availability of horizontal supports that are critical to the survival of many in our sectors. These include the universal income supports of PUP and the wage subsidy scheme which continue to be key to supporting to all sectors thorough this crisis. I am pleased to note that the extension of both of these schemes until June 2021 has provided some much needed certainty around income support. Additionally, Government is providing a range of enterprise supports such as the CRSS (Covid Restrictions Support Scheme), the CBAS (Covid Business Aid Scheme), commercial rates waivers etc., which many businesses in the sectors my Department supports can avail of.

I am resolved to continue to work with stakeholders across my sectors to monitor the evolving situation and to work with my Government colleagues to support these sectors not just during this pandemic, but into the all important recovery phase which will follow it.