Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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274. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht her ongoing plans to generate increased cultural activity notwithstanding the ongoing presence of Covid-19; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33493/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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I am critically aware of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural sector and have engaged intensively with Government colleagues, stakeholders and officials to ensure that an appropriate suite of supports is available for the sector.

In this context, I allocated €50 million in 2021 to a number of measures to assist the culture sector, which includes the allocations for the €25m Live Performance Support Scheme (LPSS 2021) I announced on June 15th last. These grants will help support employment and wellbeing opportunities across all genres and the continued production of high quality artistic output for the public.

I also allocated €14m 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. Under the scheme, self employed businesses including musicians, singers, lighting and sound crew and audio  equipment suppliers operating exclusively within the commercial live entertainment sector are eligible to apply. Applications may be made via the MEBAS application portal on my Department’s website.

n addition to this, I have made an allocation of €5 million available to local authorities for live performances in summer 2021 to animate town centres, should public health considerations permit. This will allow for the procurement by local authorities of performances by local performers. This funding will be allocated shortly.

€5 million will also be made available for a scheme of capital supports for the commercial live entertainment sector, details of this scheme are under consideration.

I recently announced an additional €11.5m for a new Events Sector Covid Support Scheme which I hope to launch soon. This scheme will target SMEs in the events sector which aren’t eligible for the CRSS and for whom MEBAS and the Small Business Assistance Scheme for COVID-19 will not make a significant contribution to fixed costs relative to the level of support that that would be available under CRSS, had such SMEs been eligible for that support.