Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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23. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if her Department intends to undertake a mid-term review of the basic income for the arts scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3551/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot was a key priority for me as Minister with responsibility for arts and culture. I see this scheme as an important intervention to support the arts sector recover after the devastation wreaked by the Covid pandemic. Covid highlighted both the precarious nature of working in the arts and the importance of the arts for us all.

The pilot was also the number one recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce which I established in 2020 to examine ways in which to help the arts recover post pandemic. I was very pleased to have been able to deliver on this recommendation. Payments on the scheme have been ongoing to recipients since the end of October.

The pilot scheme includes a research programme which will examine, over a three-year period, the impact of a basic income style payment on artists and creative arts workers. As such evaluation will be continuous, including through a longitudinal study which will see participants surveyed every six months. The data gathered as part of the research will provide an evidence base around the impact of the policy.

The scheme is a randomised control trial which consists of two groups of randomly selected people. One will receive the basic income – the treatment group, while the other, – the control group, won’t receive the BIA. Analysis of the results will involve a comparison of averages between the two groups. As the groups have the same characteristics at baseline and are large enough to be a statistically representative sample, any difference arising during the trial can be assumed to have been caused by the policy.

The research project is being undertaken by a group of economists and policy analysts who are all members of IGEES (the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service). In addition, the ESRI and IGESS will provide peer review support around methodology and research papers being produced as part of the project. Data collected will be made available to independent researchers should they want to do their own research on related topics of interest.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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24. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht what concrete proposals she intends to take to combat the dearth of artistic venues in the city of Dublin. [3706/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Urban planning and development policy is primarily a matter for local authorities and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. County and city development plans are drawn up by local authorities in accordance with their functions under the Planning and Development Acts. In this context I understand that the Dublin City Development Plan 2022-2028 was recently adopted and it came into effect on 14 December 2022.

I am aware of the particular issues in the city of Dublin and the difficulties in the provision of artistic venues here. In recognition of these issues, Dublin City Council has received a capital allocation from my Department of up to €3 million specifically to assist the Council in the provision of artists’ workspaces in the capital. The City Council is currently working to identify develop and make available a range of artists workspaces. The Council may use this funding to provide workspaces for artists in a single development or in a number of locations in the city.

Last year, I launched and rolled out the Night-Time Economy (NTE) Support Scheme in support of Actions 1 and 12 of the NTE Taskforce Report with an allocation of €4 million. This Scheme provided support for cultural activity in pubs, nightclubs, cafés and other suitable licensed and unlicensed premises during off-peak times. Over 470 applications were received with well over 2,000 events taking place across the country including Dublin City.

Last year, I allocated €2m for capital works to commercial entertainment venues throughout Ireland under the Commercial Entertainment Capital Grant Scheme and this support allowed businesses in the sector to survive the pandemic and stimulated their continuing recovery.

Recent decades have seen the development of a nationwide infrastructure of arts centres including venues overseen by local authorities and supported through my Department’s capital schemes. These investment programmes, will see the delivery of significant redevelopments in our cultural institutions and arts and cultural centres citywide.

The Arts Council currently provides programming and revenue supports to a range of arts centres in Dublin city. Record funding of €130m annual funding for the Arts Council continues to be in place for the third year running. The Council is exploring, with Dublin Port Company, the possibility of creating artists workspaces in buildings in the port area.

Under the Creative Ireland Programme, my Department has partnered with other departments and local authorities with substantial investment to deliver thousands of community-led creative projects many in Dublin city.