Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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76. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide an update on the basic income for the arts pilot scheme. [8608/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot is a key priority for me as Minister with responsibility for arts and culture. The pilot was 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 sector recover post pandemic. I was very pleased to have been able to deliver on this recommendation.

Payments to recipients began at the end of October last. 2,000 recipients are now being paid €325 a week for three years.

The pilot will research, over a three-year period, the impact of a basic income style payment on artists and creative arts workers. I have established the scheme very firmly as a research project so that an evidence base can be developed around the impact of the payment which will inform future Government policy in relation to how Ireland supports her artists. The main research will be a longitudinal study with six monthly surveys. Survey data will be compared against a baseline survey which took place before payments began.

In addition, a further 1,000 eligible applicants were selected to form a control group, these participants will not receive the Basic Income but will engage in the same data collection as those in receipt of the payment. Control Group members will be paid €650 a year in recognition of their participation in the research.

I am very grateful to all the applicants who agreed to participate in the control group; being able to compare and track their careers against those who will receive the BIA will be essential in demonstrating the impact of the payment on artists and their creative practices.

The BIA makes a strong statement at home and abroad about the value that Ireland as a nation places on artistic practice both for its intrinsic value and in terms of our personal and collective wellbeing, and also in terms of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage.

The Government wants to give recognition to the value of the arts and the role of creative practice in Irish society. I believe that the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme is a once in a generation, transformational measure in the funding of the arts in Ireland.