Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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180. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of an application by a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25699/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Basic Income for the Arts pilot research scheme closed for applications on Thursday 12th May 2022.

Selection will be a non-competitive process. Once an applicant satisfies the eligibility criteria they will be included in an anonymised random sampling process to determine the pilot participants from the pool of eligible applicants for the BIA Pilot. The process is the same for every applicant to the BIA and all eligible applicants will be included in the selection.

The Department has received a high volume of applications, in excess of 9,000 and it will not be possible to provide funding to all eligible applicants. Funding for the scheme will provide for 2,000 eligible applicants to participate in the pilot scheme.

All applicants were corresponded with directly via email on 19th May with an update on the scheme and indicating that they will next hear from the Department in June unless further information is required from them in the interim. All applicants will be contacted at that point to confirm if their application was eligible or not eligible to go forward for the randomised selection process to choose the scheme participants.

I am very encouraged by the high level of interest from artists and creative arts workers in participating in the scheme. Assessment of the applications has begun and this process will take a number weeks given the high volume of applications.