Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 November 2020
26. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media the plans in place to support the creative and performing arts community for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis and the recovery period beyond. [37321/20]
View answerI appointed an Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce in September to prepare a report including a set of recommendations on how best the arts and culture sector can adapt and recover from the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taskforce has now completed its deliberations and on Tuesday I brought it to the attention of Government colleagues and subsequently arranged for its publication.
The Government has provided significant additional supports for the arts, culture, audiovisual and creative sectors. In June 2020, an additional €20m was allocated to the Arts Council, as well as €5m to secure the future of key cultural facilities throughout Ireland and for the production of high-quality digital art and on-line performances. The Government's July Stimulus programme saw €5m allocated to a pilot Performance Support Package to assist venues and promoters of live performance in music and theatre. A TV Drama Fund of €3m was provided as well as €5m for a Production Support Package to assist the film and TV drama sector to re-start and continue - both are administered by Screen Ireland. A Culture Fund of €10m provided additional funds for Creative Ireland to employ artists through the Creative Youth and Creative Communities programmes and to support the commissioning of artists to produce creative content for national broadcast. A dedicated fund for musicians was set up in recognition of the particular difficulties being experienced by music performers across all genres. A further €5m was provided to the Arts Council which broadened its reach in 2020, to those affected by the pandemic who would not previously have been beneficiaries of support.
In the meantime, organisations and individuals in the sector have access to the universal supports of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme and the Pandemic Unemployment Payment respectively.
In Budget 2021, the sector will receive Government resources of €135m more than the amount allocated at the beginning of 2020. Of this, €50m will go to the Arts Council bringing its 2021 allocation to €130m allowing it to help artists, arts workers and arts organisations come through this crisis and play their part in the national recovery, €9m will go to Screen Ireland bringing its allocation to just over €30m in 2021 and, building on the new 2020 scheme, €50m is allocated for live performance supports.
I recently announced the COVID Response Support Scheme along with the Minister for Finance. This will provide assistance to businesses across the economy forced to curtail or close their operations as result of restrictions at Level 3 and above.
