Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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42. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she intends to respond to requests made by an organisation (details supplied) for greater Government support for musicians and others working in the industry; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3725/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Throughout the past number of years, I have supported the sectors within my remit, including the live entertainment sector. Recognising the importance of engagement with the sector in informing the development of support initiatives, I established the Live Entertainment Stakeholder Forum which met throughout the pandemic and recovery, and which includes the MEAI, to support this work. My officials have continued to engage with the sector and met with the organisation to which the Deputy refers most recently in November last year to understand better the needs and challenges for the sector.

In terms of supports to the sector, in 2022, I allocated €50m to a suite of schemes for the commercial live entertainment sector to support businesses in reopening. These schemes have provided employment and wellbeing opportunities for professional artists, musicians, performers, crew, venues, producers and other staff members involved in live performance as the sector rebuilds post pandemic and have stimulated the activation of the sector towards recovery.

As the sector fully reopened, my Department launched the Live Performance Restart Grant Scheme to provide a new grant for businesses engaged in staging live events in the arts and culture live performance sector. This scheme has supported the sector by providing business re-start grants to de-risk the planning of events and to assist with the costs of reopening.

As with other COVID-related supports, these schemes have now concluded. The Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting households and businesses with a range of measures to address the rising cost of living, such as the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) which will provide qualifying businesses with up to 40% of the increase in electricity or gas bills up to €10,000 per month. Funding of €1.25bn has been set aside to support the scheme and it is expected that it will help small businesses most, but also medium and larger businesses, including those in the live entertainment sector. It is administered by the Revenue Commissioners, backdated to September 2022.

In addition to this landmark package of energy cost supports, I am providing additional funding this year for the night-time economy, in which many live entertainment businesses participate, as well as maintaining record levels of funding for the Arts Council which provides a wide range of supports to artists and arts organisations that directly contribute to the live entertainment sector.