Basic Income Scheme For Artists In Ireland

The Irish government has begun delivering basic income for artists in Ireland. Following the devastating effects to many during and following the pandemic, the emerald isle is attempting to recover the culture industry by helping artists.

The Basic Income for the Arts scheme

The plans were announced by the Irish government back in January of 2022, and has now been implemented in September 2022. The funding has been awarded to 2,000 artists, musicians, writers and performers, in the form of a weekly income of €325 (£280) paid monthly, with reports of €25m (£22m) set aside for the scheme. Setup by Catherine Martin, the Irish Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Ms. Martin explained:

“Today is an historic day for the arts in Ireland and a significant change to the way Ireland recognises and supports her artists. The Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme is a once-in-a-generation initiative. It makes a strong statement about the value Ireland places on the arts and artistic practice, both for its intrinsic value and in terms of our personal and collective wellbeing, and also in terms of its importance to our identity and cultural distinctiveness on the global stage.”

Of the 2,000 of those who applied, musicians and artists who made up the bulk of those awarded the basic income at random, and over 9,000 artists applied in total. The scheme is set to run for three years at the time of writing. Additionally, those awarded the help may also be able to claim social welfare as well as earnings from employment and work. The beneficiaries will also be partaking in data collection that will follow the impact of the financial aid.

Key points of the scheme

Overall, BIA aims to:

• pilot a sector-specific support for the arts, in the form of a basic income, to recognise the value of time spent on creative practice, and for arts workers who make a key contribution to the creative production process
• enable artists and creative arts workers to focus on artistic production/practice without having to enter into employment in other sectors to sustain themselves
• support participants to develop their practice by providing income during periods when practice and portfolio are being developed
• give recognition to the value of the arts and the role of creative practice in Irish society
• minimise the loss of skill and experience from the arts sector
• 2,000 recipients were randomly selected from the pool of 8,206 eligible applicants. EY were contracted as independent verifiers for the selection process to oversee that selection was both random and anonymous
• participants will receive the payment – set at €325 per week – paid on a monthly basis
• participants will be required to take part in the research programme, which will require them to collect and share data on a number of topics including, but not limited to, the following:

– Details of time spent on various activities including creative practice, working in the arts, work in other sectors, training, professional development, leisure time;

– Income earned from the arts and other sectors including household income;

– Demographic data, for example: age, gender, ethnicity, disability status, art form, geographic location;

– Wellbeing indicators

• data collected will be anonymised in the evaluation of the scheme and data will be evaluated at an aggregate and not individual level
• as this is a research pilot there is no guarantee that funding will continue after the pilot
• an evaluation of the scheme will be conducted on an ongoing basis to determine the impact of the grant payment
• it was a non-competitive process, therefore once a person satisfied the eligibility criteria they were included in a randomised selection process
• 1,000 unsuccessful but eligible applicants were invited to participate in a control group to facilitate a comprehensive ex post appraisal of the pilot. This will help evaluate the impact of the payment by comparing outcome for those who received the payment with a group of peers who were not paid the basic income over the same period
• similar to most other income the payment will be taxable but the amount of taxation paid will depend on an individual’s personal circumstances
• recipients of the Basic Income are entitled to earn additional income, which will also be reckonable for the purposes of income tax
• eligibility was based on the definition of the arts as contained in the Arts Act 2003; ““arts” means any creative or interpretative expression (whether traditional or contemporary) in whatever form, and includes, in particular, visual arts, theatre, literature, music, dance, opera, film, circus and architecture, and includes any medium when used for those purposes”
• a creative arts worker is someone who has a creative practice and whose creative work makes a key contribution to the production, interpretation or exhibition of the arts

Read the full report

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