Clare Duignan speech on Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce Report

Check against delivery

Arts, culture and entertainment – these are all things that make life worth living.

The arts, culture, audio visual and live events sector is deeply embedded in local communities and economies across the country. The sector is a place where culture meets commerce. It feeds into the creative industries, supports the innovation system, and attracts talent and investment to this country.

It is one of the pillars of the tourism and hospitality industries, and generates significant benefits for the Irish economy, with the wider arts sector alone directly supporting almost 55,000 jobs.

(AV sector- 16,930 jobs in the whole sector/Events industry-35,000 FTE’s)

Our arts, culture and entertainment help to define us, they affect how the rest of the world views us, they encourage people in other countries to engage with us, and help us to evolve our sense of what it means to be Irish.

In March-this sector was shut down.

Completely.

Since then, most of it has remained closed-with sporadic flurries of activity.

The AV sector has re-opened, albeit under very strict, and very expensive Covid 19 Health and Safety guidance. But theatre, the music sector, cinemas, museums and art galleries, festivals, pantomime, street theatre and circus, arts festivals, dance, opera…. our National Cultural Institutions… all have been closed almost all the time since March.

With each passing month of closure, the risk grows that Ireland will emerge from COVID-19 to find its arts, culture and events sectors decimated, with some venues closed for good, businesses folded, and large numbers of skilled and talented performers and workers gone to find work in other sectors.

It could take years to rebuild the sector.

This was the landscape facing the Taskforce as we began our work.

We identified three problems:

• How to ensure that the sector survives and recovers from this crises?
• How to build resilience in the sector?
• And how to best position the sector to move forward from where it is now?

The Covid-19 pandemic calls for bold and innovative thinking and we have made just 10 Recommendations which we believe are transformative, which are largely cross-sectoral, and which were agreed unanimously by all members.

Issue 1 - Ensuring Recovery

Recommendation 1 - We very quickly and unanimously agreed that the establishment of a 3 year pilot Universal Basic Income scheme for workers in the sector is the best way to protect livelihoods and to prevent a flight of skills and talent. A UBI ‘opt in’ pilot will create a more stable social protection mechanism that will allow artists and workers to sustain themselves during the pandemic, and to take up work when it comes along, without losing existing social protection supports. The uncertainty of Covid 19 means that very few workers in the sector are likely to have steady work and a regular income in the foreseeable future. With UBI, everyone engaged in artistic and creative work has a small regular and unconditional cash flow and can make financial plans. All other income would be earned separately and subject to taxation at the marginal rate.

UBI will help the sector to gradually recover, and stay largely intact.

As further means of Ensuring Recovery, we also recommended other financial supports.

Recommendation 2 proposes amendments to the Tax Code in the form of a VAT compensation scheme. We see this as a way of offsetting some of the worst effects of revenue loss and unemployment caused by Covid 19.

In Recommendation 3, we strongly recommend the transposition into Irish law of the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. This one move would significantly increase the capacity of rightsholders such as writers and musicians to generate revenue from the recording, streaming or broadcasting of their work. We also urge that the Audio-Visual Media Service Directive be transposed into Irish law as this would provide real benefits to Irish AV workers and companies.

Recommendation 4 sets out to address the problem of the very many Live Events SME’s which have been completely shut down by Covid 19. These are the businesses that present or supply concerts, festivals, sporting and cultural events and much more. These ultimately viable businesses are currently excluded from Budget 2021 supports because they are largely B to B businesses, and do not have public-facing premises. Yet even though they are currently unable to trade, they still face urgent financial demands such as bank loans and lease payments, insurance, rent, and cash flow to make their payments as part of the EWSS scheme.

In Recommendation 5 we propose supports for the Arts Budgets of our Local Authorities in 2021, so that they will be enabled to maintain their investment in arts, culture and events at 2020 levels, despite income losses caused by Covid 19. The Taskforce is very concerned at the possible impact of reductions in Local Authority arts support. We want artists and creative workers to continue to be able to work in the communities where they live, where their work contributes to a sense of place and wellbeing, so important at this time.

Issue 2 - Building Resilience

The Taskforce had many representatives of the arts and events sectors amongst its members, and so we heard first-hand about the stress, isolation, loss of purpose and mental turmoil felt by many in the creative industries. In Recommendation 6 we propose the creation of a programme of physical and mental wellbeing for the sectors. It is very important that people stay well, if they are to remain in the sector and continue their creative practice.

The Taskforce considers the retention of skills and talent to be one of the biggest challenges facing the sector We believe that providing platforms for upskilling and professional development can be a game changer here, so Recommendation 7 proposes that enhanced development and training supports are provided to artists and creative workers at this time when they cannot work. This will allow them to upskill and future-proof their skills, and ensuring that the sector will become more resilient-a key strategy of the National Economic Plan.

Everyone we spoke to in the sector wants to get back to work! We recognise that public health and safety must underpin all policy decisions at this time, but at the same time we strongly believe that we must get even some small arts, culture and entertainment events and venues back up and running or opening safely. Recommendation 8 proposes that the current categorisation of arts and cultural events and venues within Resilience and Recovery 2020 – 2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19 requires further examination, as the current treatment of cultural activities and venues does not necessarily reflect the circumstances of many venues, or the particular behaviour of artists, audiences and venues in the sector.

Facing Forward

As we look forward towards the sector beginning to open up, we believe that outdoor spaces, in both the built and natural environment, offer the best hope of attracting back audiences. The Taskforce believes that all across Ireland, there are spaces which can, with imagination and a well-funded capital improvement programme, be adapted to allow live performances in a safe environment, adhering to public health guidelines, and enriching life in our towns and villages and cities. So Recommendation 9 proposes the creation of Re-imagining our Public Spaces, a capital improvement programme for outdoor spaces.

Transitioning to a sustainable low carbon economy is at the heart of the National Economic Plan. We have recommended the creation of a Creative Green programme, to provide practical advice and resources to reduce carbon footprint and overall environmental impacts in the creative and events sectors. The inactivity forced upon the sector by COVID-19 presents an opportunity to address climate and environmental issues now in order to contribute distinctively towards the building of a better, and more sustainable shared future.

Almost 17,000 people work in the Irish Audio Visual Sector. When all production activity was halted due to the pandemic, numerous support measures were put in place to help ensure the sustainability of the sector and the industry is slowly emerging and adapting to living with COVID-19. The Taskforce recommends that these and other measures to continue into 2021 to mitigate against the challenges of production during unprecedented levels of uncertainty.

The Taskforce’s recommendations were unanimously agreed. We believe that they will ensure the survival of the sector, and will help to develop the resilience it will need to withstand the uncertainties of the next few years, and beyond.

I want to thank all the members of the Taskforce, for their dedication and unstinting work in delivering this Report in such a tight timeframe. We were exceptionally well supported by our colleagues in the Department of Tourism Culture Arts Gaeltacht Sport and Media, and by the secretariate to the Taskforce, and I thank them most sincerely. Finally, we all thank Minister Catherine Martin for giving us the opportunity, through membership of this Taskforce, to contribute to securing the future of a sector that we all care deeply about. I wish the Minister a good wind behind her work in delivering the recommendations in the Report and I urge her colleagues across Government to support her in her efforts.

I choose to be an optimist, and so I want to end with my wishes for the sector, as beautifully expressed by the late poet Derek Mahon ‘What can I wish for you but happier days to make up for the crises you came through with such resilience?’