Future of artists support scheme is yet to be determined
When launching the latest report on Basic Income for the Arts minister Patrick O’Donovan said he supported it carrying on into the future, but with the caveat of no guarantees. Picture: Niall Carson/ PA
One of the artists receiving €325 a week from the State told the latest research paper on it: “Every country needs artists but artists can’t be manufactured, they need to grow.”
Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) is a “huge step towards that”, the participant said.
Now with less than six months to run, the future of the scheme has yet to be determined.
First launched as a pilot project in 2022, the scheme offers €325 a week to 2,000 people in the arts in Ireland. Thousands more who were eligible applied.
The idea behind it is to help artists deal with precarious incomes and to prevent them from leaving the sector for economic reasons.
The research done on it so far suggests it has done just that.
The most recent was published by the Department of Culture last week analysing its first two years of operation.
While the 111-page document delves into various aspects of the operation of the scheme, even just some of the headlines from its executive summary tell their own story:
- [It] helps sectoral retention;
- More time spent on arts practice and more art production;
- Large decrease in deprivation, but remains higher than the general population;
- Large improvement in wellbeing.
According to its findings, the scheme is having a sustained positive experience on recipients’ lives.
They spend more time on their arts practice and are producing more compared to a control group.
They are less likely to experience depression and anxiety, have higher life satisfaction and are more likely to afford basic necessities.
At the same time, the latest research report into the progress of the Basic Income for the Arts scheme paints a fairly bleak picture for some trying to live as an artist in Ireland, as it compares those in receipt of the payment to the control group who aren’t getting it.
One told the study: “I worry exceedingly about the future. My partner is 65 and will be entitled to a contributory state pension. I […] won't be entitled to one.”
Furthermore, there was a high rate of people with disabilities leaving the pilot with one saying they were worried about how it would affect other social welfare payments they were receiving.
The scheme, while having its limitations, is certainly having a positive impact on those it has tried to support.
Despite this, whether or not the Government will continue with it beyond the three-year pilot has yet to be determined.
The last arts minister Catherine Martin had signalled strong support for the scheme.
She said the feedback was “unfailingly positive” and that she'd "like see this scheme expanded to more and more artists".
But neither Ms Martin nor her Green Party colleagues returned to government this time around, which has made the future of the scheme far from clear.
The newest programme for government, for example, would not be drawn on what would become of the scheme after its initial three-year pilot.
It rather vaguely promised to “assess the Basic Income for Artists pilot to maximise its impact”.
Ahead of this latest research being published, earlier this year now-arts minister Patrick O’Donovan said he wouldn’t pre-emptively make a call on it prior to research on the output from the scheme.
He told the Dáil that given the scheme was allocated €105m from the last government, the evidence on the “value accrued to the State” would “probably colour the decision going forward”.
Labour is among the parties clearly in favour of retaining it.
Its arts spokesperson Robert O’Donoghue said the results of the scheme speak for itself.
“The BIA has already proven its worth,” he said. “The evidence is clear: this scheme works. We need further details on its future as soon as possible.”
Encouragingly from the artists’ perspective, when launching the latest report Mr O’Donovan said he supported it carrying on into the future. But with the caveat of no guarantees.
While Basic Income for the Arts may be a footnote among the other headlines when Budget 2026 is announced next month, thousands of Ireland’s creatives will be closely watching to hear its fate.
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