Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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335. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the frequency with which her Department has contacted participants on the basic income for the arts scheme since its commencement; and if direct communication with participants relates to gathering research exclusively or also to notify participants with information relating to artistic opportunities and events. [25760/23]

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.

Research findings on the impact of this pilot on the individuals and their practices, the sector and ecology of the arts in Ireland will form part of the pilot and this scheme has the potential to change the landscape of the arts in Ireland and how we fund it.

Following the application and assessment process the first offers were made to participants on 8 September 2022. In order to administer this scheme we have corresponded with our participants regularly. To date a total of 28 emails have been issued to all participants. These included the initial emails offering a place on the pilot, email reminders regarding tax treatment and tax clearance, emails listing upcoming payment dates for BIA recipients, notification and reminder of BIA survey, invitation to an online welcome and research team survey information session held in March 2023 and links and information on the Minding Creative Minds/Safe to Create programmes being supported by my Department.

Of course there is also an administration requirement to run the scheme and this often requires additional individual contacts for instance, regarding bank closures in Ireland, account details, and other queries as they arise for individual participants.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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336. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will publish the questions being asked of participants as part of the research for the pilot basic income for the arts scheme. [25761/23]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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Implementing the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot was a key priority for me, and I look forward to seeing the data that arises out of the pilot in due course.

The BIA pilot has been implemented as a randomised control trial which consists of two groups of randomly selected people. 2,000 recipients were selected to receive a payment of €325 per week, while a further 1,000 Control Group members were also selected to participate in the research. Analysis of the results will involve a comparison of averages between the two groups, across a very broad range of possible impact areas.

The research programme that accompanies the pilot is examining, 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 and ongoing, with the main element of the programme comprising a longitudinal study which is seeing participants surveyed every six months. An initial pre-intervention baseline survey was opened to participant in October 2022 for responses, and the first post-intervention survey is currently open for responses from participants and due to close tomorrow (31 May). These surveys will continue every six months for the duration of the pilot.

Once the data from this survey has been analysed, a comprehensive report assessing the impact of the scheme will be produced by the Basic Income for the Arts Research Team. This team is comprised of a group of economists and policy analysts who are all members of IGEES (the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service).

I anticipate that the first of a series of reports on the pilot will begin to be published during the summer. It is my intention that this report will provide significant analysis and insights in relation to the impact of the scheme to date, and that the survey questions will be published as part of, or along side of, this initial report.