Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 October 2020
31. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht the supports for artistic venues and enterprises that are not supported through the Arts Council and which face closures without such needed support; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27430/20]
View answer62. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht if her attention has been drawn to the recent closure of a venue (details supplied) and the statement by the directors of the venue in the media on 23 September 2020; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27429/20]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 62 together.
A range of measures are in place to support venues and events activities in light of the challenges posed by COVID-19. While the Arts Council provides funding to a number of arts centres, it also provides funding to local authorities. A number of arts centres not funded by the Arts Council may be eligible to apply for funding schemes through their local authorities.
Last month, I launched a number of new music and performance support schemes to aid employment in the creative industries. An allocation of €5 million is being made available under the “Live Performance Support Scheme” which aims to assist commercial venues, producers and promoters of live performances and provide employment to workers in the creative industries.
A further support package, the Music Stimulus Package, involves three funding schemes designed to help sustain the popular and commercial music sector across all music genres, including rock, pop, hip hop, indie, jazz, country and western and traditional and folk. Under this package, a fund of €1,000,000 is being put in place to stimulate areas of work which artists would usually fund with income from own sources including live event fees. These schemes are targeted at professional musicians and their teams and will support song writing camps, recording and album releases. The aim is to ensure that Irish musicians, engineers, PR, media, agents, labels and publishers can continue to develop and share their work in the context of COVID restrictions. The Music Stimulus Package schemes will be managed on behalf of the Department by First Music Contact and will be subject to peer panel assessment.
I have recently appointed the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce which is being chaired by Clare Duignan. The membership of the taskforce includes representation from the Events Industry Alliance. Taking as its starting point, the research and evidence of the devastating impact of the pandemic on the sector compiled by the Department, the Arts Council and other stakeholders, the Taskforce will prepare a report to me setting out recommendations on how best the arts and culture sector can adapt and recover from the unprecedented damage arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector includes culture, the arts, the audiovisual industry and the live entertainment industry.
The Taskforce has already met twice. Its proceedings will be conducted in a transparent manner and all correspondence will be published in due course.
