From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
By: Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media; Catherine Martin
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I am very pleased to be here today to discuss Ireland’s Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme, or BIA for short. I would particularly like to thank Claire Hanna for the invitation to speak to you all today about this innovative new support for the arts in Ireland. I see the Basic Income pilot as an innovative response to the needs of artists and am always happy to share our experience with this initiative as broadly as possible.
The delivery of the Basic Income for the Arts has been a key priority of mine as Minister with responsibility for arts and culture in Ireland. I was delighted to secure a commitment to its delivery as part of the Irish Government’s National Economic Recovery Plan and to have the initiative endorsed by Government. I believe that this scheme is the start of a fundamental change in the way Ireland supports and recognises her artists and arts community.
The concept for the scheme arose as the number one recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce which I established upon taking office in 2020 to determine how best to support the arts after the devastating impact wreaked on the sector by COVID-19. I am very pleased we delivered on this recommendation, with the first payments on the scheme made last week.
Aside from the challenges of the sector being closed for almost two years in Ireland, many artists out of economic necessity had to take up employment in other sectors. The challenges faced now are very clear in terms of getting the arts back up and running. Feedback from across the sector indicates that audience numbers remain lower than pre-pandemic level, especially for emerging artists and new work, and there are staff shortages associated with a loss of talent and skills from the sector during COVID-19. The BIA is a timely intervention to support artists and the sector as a whole to navigate these difficult times.
The policy basis for the scheme is based on my strongly held belief in the intrinsic value of the arts, culture and creativity. It is critical in my view that we recognise and support artistic practice in all its forms. 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. It 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 of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage.
The recent pandemic reinforced the fact that each and every person relies on and leans into the arts during times of need and every person was reminded of the true value of artists and their work during the last two years as we listened to music, read poetry and watched films to get ourselves through those difficult days. And it is the arts that will help us make sense of what happened and help us shape the future. With so much uncertainty in the world now, including the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and cost of living increases, we need the arts more than ever to help inspire us to imagine and create a better future for ourselves.
While there have been some similar schemes internationally including in France and Finland, what we are doing in Ireland with the Basic Income goes further than any other support I know of internationally. A basic income will be offered to artists and creative arts workers, not as a social protection support, but instead in recognition of the intrinsic value of artistic practice, therefor allowing artists and creatives to focus on their practice and be compensated appropriately for it.
The scheme has been shaped by repeated rounds of engagement with the sector and relevant stakeholders. I was determined since the outset to ensure that the voices of artists and those working in the sector would be heard and valued. That engagement was crucial in clearly defining what the objectives of the scheme were and how we would go about measuring the impact of the scheme.
As you can imagine, we had huge interest in the scheme and received over 9,100 applications for the 2,000 places on the pilot scheme. There is clearly a strong appetite for this type of support and I believe not just in the arts but in many sectors of the economy. Basic Income as a concept is a huge topic of debate around the world today as we face challenges I’ve already outlined. I know many countries, including the UK, will be watching with interest what the impact of the scheme will be, which is why we established a very comprehensive research programme around the scheme.
Over the next three years, my department will be collecting information from participants to measure the impact of the scheme. I intend that the comprehensive data collection will provide key details to underpin future evidence based policy making for the arts in Ireland. Basic Incomes are costly interventions and we will spend over €100 million (or £91 million) over three years, which is why the data collection and research elements of the scheme are so important to clearly see and demonstrate the impact of the funding.
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 then arising during the trial can be assumed to have been caused by the policy.
Some 2,000 participants will be provided with €325 (£285) a week for three years to allow them to focus on their creative practice and to facilitate research on the impact this will have on their practice, their wellbeing and the arts sector as a whole. Another 1,000 participants in the control group will be paid €650 per year (£570) to engage in the data collection and it is the comparison of the two groups over time that will provide the crucial evidence of the impact of the scheme.
Details will be collected on numerous topics, including income and earnings, time use, work and job quality, wellbeing and mental health. Much of the data we collect will be made available at an aggregate level to support others wishing to do research on the topic.
In researching impacts on recipients and on the ecology of the arts, this pilot scheme has the potential to fundamentally transform how we support our treasured Arts sector and could allow Ireland to lead the way on a new model to support creativity, recognising its importance to all people. I look forward to seeing the results of the research which I hope will underpin future government policy for the arts.
I should also clarify for you that while this is an important innovation in how we value the arts, the primary support for professional artists in Ireland continues to be delivered by the Arts Council of Ireland. Other supports also exist in terms of the work of my department’s Culture Ireland programme, which supports Irish artists in reaching international audiences, working closely on occasion with the British Council.
Finally, the National Gallery of Ireland operates in part under the National Gallery of Ireland Act enacted in this place in 1854. It is home to a fine collection of Turner water colours which are exhibited in January each year in line with the terms under which they were donated to the Gallery in 1900 by the English collector Henry Vaughan – please go and see them if you ever get a chance. Turner is often quoted as saying that “it is only when we are no longer fearful that we begin to create”. A clear ambition of the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme is allow artists to be fearless in their creativity and that this will be for their, and for all of our benefit.
Once again, many thanks for the opportunity to visit with you today and to share with you our experience to date on our Basic Income for artists – where we are, how we got here and where we hope to go. I am happy now to take any questions you may have.
Go raibh maith agaibh.