Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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98. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if consideration is being given to allowing theatres to open at reduced capacity in summer 2021; and the level of virus suppression that would be necessary to facilitate the reopening of the sector. [21966/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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We all aspire to a safe resumption of live performance which is so fundamental to the arts, culture and entertainment sectors.  I am engaged directly and through my Department with stakeholders and colleagues across Government to prepare for such a resumption when public health considerations permit.  In the interim, my Department operates a range of sector specific supports in addition to a broad range of horizontal supports.  These include the €25m Live Performance Support Scheme.  Applications made under this scheme are currently being assessed. 

The Government’s COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery 2021 - The Path Ahead plan sets out the Government’s objectives for the full recovery of social life, public services and the economy.  The plan committed to the development of sectoral guidance for very large purpose built event facilities, for example: stadia, auditoriums, conference or event centres. I established the Live Entertainment Working Group to facilitate stakeholder consultation and develop COVID-19 Guidelines for the Live Entertainment sector.  The Group includes stakeholders from across the live entertainment sector as well and those with appropriate technical knowledge in the planning, management and delivery of events.  The Group will produce a set of overarching guiding principles that all venue promotors can adopt for their specific purposes. It is chaired by my Department and had its first meeting on 21 April 2021. The Live Entertainment Working Group includes stakeholders with appropriate technical knowledge in the planning, management and delivery of events and is will produce a set of overarching guiding principles which all venue promotors can adopt for their specific purposes.

In addition, the Arts Council and Fáilte Ireland entered into a strategic partnership in order to develop guidance for the safe presentation of festivals and live events. This document is currently at the consultation stage and is due to be published in the coming weeks.

While the timeframe for the resumption of entertainment events is dependent on public health considerations, it is critical that a set of COVID-19 guidelines is developed and ready in advance of the re-opening of the sector.

I was pleased to recently announce a new €50 million suite of additional measures to further support the Live Entertainment Sector this year. As part of this suite, an allocation of €14m will be made available for the Music and Entertainment Business Assistance Scheme (MEBAS) to make a contribution to the overheads of businesses, specifically musicians and related crew, that have been significantly negatively affected by COVID-19 and that do not qualify for other business supports.

The new scheme will see support offered by way of two levels of flat payments of:-

 ?€2,500 for businesses with a VAT-exclusive turnover of €20,000 - €100,000;

 ?€5,000 for businesses with a VAT-exclusive turnover in excess of €100,000.

I hope to open this scheme for applications shortly.