Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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57. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the scheme of basic income for artists. [36339/22]

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 12th.

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 is ongoing 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.

Due to the high volume of applications, a large number of further information requests are now required to establish applicants' eligibility. Once that process is complete, all applicants will be contacted to confirm if their application was eligible or not eligible to go forward for the randomised selection process to choose the 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 eligible 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.

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 artists and I look forward to seeing the data and findings of the research during the pilot.