Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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579. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if venues that received grants under the live performance support scheme 2021 will keep their allocated funding beyond 30 September 2021 if Covid-19 pandemic regulations mean that they cannot operate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41060/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Government allocated €50 million in 2021 to a suite of measures to assist the arts and culture sector.  As part of that funding, on Tuesday June 15th I announced the allocations for the €25m Live Performance Support Scheme (LPSS 2021).  I was delighted to be in a position to fund 237 successful applications under this scheme, the details of which are available on my Department’s website. 

LPSS 2021 builds on the successful pilot Live Performance Support Scheme in 2020, which provided thousands of days of employment to hundreds of musicians, actors, crew and technicians in tandem with a pipeline of high quality on-line much needed entertainment for Irish audiences.

The 237 grants awarded will help to support employment and wellbeing opportunities across all genres and the continued production of high quality artistic output for the public. This scheme will assist live performance where capacity for live attendance is restricted due to public health restrictions which require funding assistance in order to make performance viable/available on-line.

As detailed in the application process, activity in relation to performances and events funded under this scheme should conclude on or before 30th September.  At present events outdoors with between 200 and 500 people, depending on venue size, are permitted but I appreciate that there are limited indoor opportunities aside from theatres hosting up to 50 people.  I will keep developments in relation to public health restrictions under review and may re-consider the September deadline if that becomes necessary.  LPSS grantees are encouraged to provide for live streaming where they are unable to host an event live.