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LAST UPDATE | 11 Feb
TRADE UNION SIPTU has welcomed a new, permanent scheme to financially support artists announced Tuesday.
The scheme was approved after it was brought to Cabinet by Minister for Arts and Culture Patrick O’Donovan on Tuesday.
The Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) scheme provides for 2,000 artists to receive €325 per week for three years to mediate the inconsistent financial nature of the arts.
O’Donovan described the approval of the scheme as “a major milestone for the arts in Ireland and how we support the arts”.
He added: “I am particularly pleased that the research my Department conducted provided Government with a clear evidence base upon which to make that decision. Ireland is a global leader in the area of artist supports because of the BIA.”
Asked by reporters why the number of artists being selected and the amount being paid had not been increased, O’Donovan said it was due to the amount of funding made available and that he would like to see both increased.
“The reason that it’s been started at 2,000 is because that’s the budget envelope that we got from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for a full calendar year,” he said.
“But I hope to be able to grow that over the next couple of years, and that will obviously involve negotiations between myself and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and our department officials.
Siptu sector organiser Robbie Purfield said the permanent scheme is “an important step towards tackling the chronic income security that so many cultural workers face”.
He said that the union would continue to push for an expansion in the number of recipients and ongoing review of the payment level “so the scheme keeps pace with living costs and reflects the value Ireland places on cultural work.”
Applications for the 2026 scheme will open in May and artists approved for the scheme will begin receiving the payments in September, which will continue through to September 2029.
A further three months’ tapering off period is also included – payments will be made at 75% of the previous amount, to 50%, to 25% to remove a “cliff’s edge” off the scheme.
The new BIA will operate in 3-year cycles with artists being eligible for every 3 out of 6 years. This means that, if selected in 2026 – 2029 for the payment, an artist won’t be eligible for the payment in the next cycle, but may reapply in the cycle following that
A pilot version of the scheme commenced in 2022 and ran for three years before it was extended for a further six months. In Budget 2026, it was announced that the pilot scheme would be developed into a successor scheme in 2026.
The payments are taxable and an annual audit will be carried out to ensure participants are compliant with the guidelines.
O’Donovan was expected to outline to Cabinet the strengthened eligibility proofs to ensure that applicants are artists who demonstrate an active, Irish, professional creative practice.
Guidelines outlining the detail of criteria and parameters for the scheme are currently being finalised and will be published in April.
A cost-benefit analysis published in September found the pilot scheme produced over €100m in socio-economic benefits. O’Donovan said the report showed the scheme had a “positive economic impact”.
Sinéad Gibney, the Social Democrats’ arts spokesperson, criticised what she called the government’s “shambolic” handling of the transition between the pilot programme and the opening of the application process for the nationwide scheme.
“Artists participating in the pilot project now facing a financial cliff edge,” she said.
“These payments are due to end this month, and it is completely unacceptable that a successor scheme is not likely to be in place until at least September.”
Gibney said the situation has caused “considerable anxiety to artists who don’t know if they will be eligible or given priority for the next phase of the scheme”.
She added that it was difficult to understand the government’s lack of planning “given that this gap was predictable and avoidable”.
“It is a slap in the face for those artists who now have to wait until applications open for the replacement scheme to learn if they will qualify,” Gibney said.
With reporting from David Mac Redmond and Press Association
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