Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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24. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will report on the basic income for the arts pilot scheme; the details of the operation of the scheme; the geographical spread of the pilot scheme in order that all counties will benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32484/22]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Demand for the basic income for the arts pilot research scheme has been very strong with just over 9,000 applications received by the closing date of May 12^th. 

I am very encouraged by the level of interest from artists and creative arts workers interested in participating in the pilot scheme.  Assessment of the applications has begun and this process will take at least 6-8 weeks given the high volume of applications.  Once assessed for eligibility, all eligible applicants will be entered into an anonymised random sampling process to choose the 2,000 scheme participants.

The pilot scheme is a three year research programme to evaluate the impact of a basic income style payment on the arts sector.  The pilot will also have a control group of up to 1,000 applicants to provide for comparative analysis between the treatment and control group.  A data baselining survey of all participants in both the Treatment and Control Groups will be conducted prior to payments starting to provide the starting point/baseline for the research.

Some specific data on the applications received includes:

- Gender: 48% of applicants were female and 48% were Male. This is 50:50 when other/prefer not to say options are excluded. The CSO’s 2020 Population Projections have a ratio of 49.8% female and 50.2% male. The applicant cohort is as-expected and aligned with the general population.

- Geographical Location:Applications have been received from every county. The largest number of applications was received from applicants living in Dublin; 37.1%of the applications overall.  This is followed by Cork (11%), Galway (7.4%), Wicklow (4.3%) and Kildare (3.6%). 62% of all applicants identified as Urban dwellers and 38% as Rural.  I intend to ensure that the distribution of the participants on the scheme will closely align with the geographical spread of applicants.

- Art Form:Applications were received from applicants practicing in all art forms listed under the Arts Act. Combined, Visual Arts and Music account for 63.9% of allapplications. The largest number of applications were received under Visual Arts (37.1%), followed by Music (27.8%), then Film (10.3%). Literature and Theatre account for just under 8.5% of applications each.

I am very pleased with the huge level of enthusiasm for the basic income for the arts pilot scheme and am delighted that over 9,000 artists and creative arts workers were willing to participate in this innovative research project. This heralds a new approach to the way the State funds and recognises her artists and I look forward to seeing the data and findings of the research during the pilot.

The following Tables provide a breakdown by Gender, Geographical Location and Art Form.