Government mulls basic income for arts sector workers

A campaign to "Save the arts, save our artists, do it now" has been seeking support for the sector.

The Government is mulling a pilot scheme of Universal Basic Income (UBI) for the arts sector.

The payment is a key recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce report published on Tuesday.

The report sheds light on what arts minister Catherine Martin calls "the dire crisis" the sector now faces.

She said the report highlighted how Ireland's "freelance community have seen income disappear, performers have no audience, cultural spaces remain empty and lights have been turned off" and that "it is now accepted that the impact will last longer for the thousands that work in arts and culture than any other".

The UBI would be set at the minimum wage of €10.20 an hour for 31.9 hours a week, would not be means-tested and would not stop those in receipt of the UBI from taking on other work.

The payment would work out €325.38 a week, a replacement rate of 55.6% for the average wage in the arts sector.

On average, the UBI would be €49.38 a week higher than the pandemic unemployment payment, or over €2,500 a year. 

The estimates are that the payment would cost €2.5m a year per 1,000 participants, however, the department could not say how many they think would apply for the payment due to it's "opt-in" status.

Similar programmes already exist in Finland, Germany and the Netherlands, which the minister said the oversight group set up to review the recommendations would be studying. 

However, she said she had made clear there was an "urgency needed to support artists" and she would like to see recommendations implemented as soon as possible.

▶️WATCH BACK

"The Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce report sheds light today on a dire crisis that the sector now faces and which requires action”

Minister @cathmartingreen on #ArtsTaskforce recommendations.. Chairperson @clare_duignan also spoke ⬇️pic.twitter.com/FeBZWbyKnJ

— Department of Culture, Communications and Sport (@DeptCultureIRL) November 17, 2020

Trialling Universal Basic Income over the next five years is a commitment within the programme for government and had been in the Green Party manifesto.

"It doesn't come as a surprise that I'm an advocate for UBI," said Ms Martin.

"In arts and culture, sentiment is not enough, we talk so much about our artists and how we value them, this is artists saying to us; 'Do something about it'.

"Those who make artistic and creative work, that's their chief occupation – they often face cash flow problems even before the pandemic and for the creation of art, music, literature and live events, it requires freedom to create so we don't necessarily have to stifle them in working in alternative careers and work on their craft."

Other recommendations in the report include: 

• opportunities for broadening the use of outdoor public spaces for performances; 
• amendments to the tax code to give artists further reliefs on income; 
• supports for the arts budgets provided by local authorities to community-based artists; 
• the immediate transposition into Irish law of the European Union (EU) Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market; 
• and particular supports for Live Event Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) currently excluded from the Covid-19 Restrictions Support Scheme.