Richard Boyd Barrett condemns 'insulting' COVID support for arts

Minister, just imagine, at the best of times, but even worse now, that we had no music, we had no comedy, we had no film, we had no theatre, we had no art. Imagine going through the last two months and we had none of those things. It's too awful to even contemplate. The UN are talking about a mental health crisis. Imagine how bad the mental health crisis would be without our artists, our musicians, our poets, our writers and the crew, and I really want to emphasise this, the crew, the technicians, the drivers, all the other people who make it happen. Just imagine that. Life would not be worth living. We all know it. We only have to think for one minute what the last few months would have been like in that scenario. It wouldn't be worth living. OK, that's how important arts are. But what sort of support do we give to our arts, workers and performers and artists? It's insulting, Minister. It was insulting before the COVID crisis, where in a country that trades, whose reputation is built on the arts, we spend less than almost anybody else in Europe in supporting arts, the artists and the crew. And then we get a million euro to support artists. I mean, I'm looking at one of the rejection letters for one of the schemes you were claiming as a success. I mean, this is, I won't say the name of the artist, but this is a household name. Refused. Two thirds of those applied for this pretty miserable grant. Refused. And were given a grade on the artistic merit of their application. Utterly insulting. This is a household name. I won't say what the name is, but it's a household name. Who's given service to this state. As all those people are. But they are frankly treated with no respect, except when people want to jump into a camera shot with them to get a bit of credibility or kudos off their work and their creativity. So this insulting approach to our artists has to end, Minister. Because now, more than ever, we should realise how important they are. So I just have a few specific things. I think you should commit to the National Campaign for the Arts Demand for an additional 20 million. I would say it should be more, frankly, for this year and next year to fund arts and arts organisations. That you should commit that the COVID payment is given to everybody, not just people who happened to be working on the 13th of March. Many who have been working the next week or the week after and are being denied that payment. That that payment is guaranteed until we get back to a situation where live performances and the arts are back up and running at least. In fact, to be honest with you, it should be given out on a permanent basis to our artists, as I have suggested before, or in some sort of public works programme for artists to genuinely support them. Theatres, people in the music business need clarity about what the guidelines, as Deputy Gannon said, about the guidelines for this partial reopening. But even if that partial reopening happens, or when it happens, it's going to be chronically underfunded because the revenue streams just won't be there if social distancing is implemented. And the last point I just want to make is, you know, on my oft-repeated theme of the film industry. You see, why are we giving out support to film producers who just sacked all their crew? Right? They just sacked all their crew. They didn't put them on the wage subsidy at Ardmore. Another, these producers who get 70 or 80 million a year, but don't actually have any employees, who don't recognise their employees as employees, and then just sacked them as soon as the crisis hits. And they go on the COVID payment, or indeed, are they supposed to go on job seekers allowance? It's absolutely outrageous. So these producers continue to get money and support, look for support, but when their workers go and say, I'm your employee, and they say, oh, we don't have any employees. Right? So let's start supporting the workers, the crew, the artists, and put the money into the people who actually make the art and the work happen. But just in relation to the income supports in general, and you talk about that, I mean, just from a reality check perspective, I mentioned earlier on, there's 1.1 million people in receipt of social welfare benefits in the country. That's 203 euro per week for 212,000 people. There are now 213,000 people at the end of April on the live register. The amount of people who are receiving the pandemic unemployment payment in Ireland at the moment is 589,000 at a cost of 206 million. So far we spent 908,000, the state has spent 908 million on that particular wage subsidy scheme. 53,600 employees have availed of it and 460,000 employees. And of the pandemic unemployment payment, 14,000 people from the arts sector have availed of that, according to the Department of Social Welfare. So art workers are getting the support that's required from the government. And after workers from the accommodation, the construction, administration and retail sectors, the arts has the highest share of people claiming the pandemic unemployment payment. And, you know, it's a higher level of support than in Northern Ireland, which is only 100 sterling. So we're significantly more than that. I mentioned earlier that, you know, this narrative saying that, you know, we're broadly in line with the European average. We are actually more than the UK and more than Germany. The UK is actually, it's money reallocated of national lottery project grants. So that's from a development fund. So the reality is that most of the money was repurposed and already in the 2020 budget, whereas in Ireland, 25 million of funding was made available in March to the Arts Council to assure funding would get to artists affected by COVID-19. So, I mean, that is significant. But, you know, as I mentioned earlier on, there's a huge deficit here. I can assure you, Deputy, I am and I have been. And, you know, we have, I have, I have actually, my department's vote has increased by 23% since 2017. I have significantly increased the funding to the arts since I took office two and a half years ago. And if I had the opportunity to remain here, Ciancola, I will continue to do that. And I will fight really hard for this sector because, you know, Deputy Boyd Barrett is right. The world wouldn't be a good place over the last number of weeks if we didn't have the music and the arts and everything else to sustain us. And if anything, that will give a loud signal to everybody. But I am pleased that they can at least avail of these supports that are there. Thank you, Mr. Minister. Thank you, Mr. Minister.