By The Journal of Music
A number of arts organisations including First Music Contact, Performing Arts Forum and Poetry Ireland have launched a petition seeking to ‘retain, extend and expand’ the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) scheme.
The BIA pilot scheme was launched by Minister for Arts Catherine Martin in September 2022 and provides 2,000 artists and arts workers with a weekly payment of €325 for three years. The scheme was the key recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce set up during the pandemic.
After six months, research on the scheme showed a 10% decrease in depression and anxiety among recipients, and, after one year, a report showed that recipients had improved life satisfaction, spent more time on their artistic work, and 40% of their payment went on their artistic work.
The pilot scheme is due to end in 2025 and arts organisations are now calling on the government to ensure that it continues and is extended to more people in the arts sector.
The petition states the scheme provides ‘financial security for artists while allowing them creative freedom without the economic precarity so many artists and arts workers have been shown to disproportionately suffer’.
It adds that the arts provide ‘myriad positive benefits to society from economic, health, mental wellbeing, education, societal cohesion, diversity, and inclusion, to creativity, critical thinking, innovation, entrepreneurship, global reputation and much more.’
Seanad questions
Last week (25 June), Senator Malcolm Byrne of Fianna Fáil raised the issue of extending the pilot in the Seanad. He said there was a commitment in Fianna Fáil to continuing the scheme but he was concerned that there would not be a decision before it ends. He said:
Given that the end of the three-year pilot will occur next year, we should not wait until the last minute. We need to learn lessons from the scheme, which has been in place since 2022, and consider the necessary improvements we may need to introduce. For the artistic community, which is hugely supportive of this scheme, we should provide them with a bit of certainty around the continuation of the scheme.
In response, Minister of State Martin Heydon, who was speaking on behalf of Minister Catherine Martin, commented:
While the Minister is very supportive of the BIA, it is too early in the research to fully understand the impact of the scheme, and the pilot will need to be completed to assess the effectiveness of the BIA on those in receipt of it. For example, positive impacts seen early in the research may change or reduce over time, so it is too early to make that decision on the next steps right now.
Senator Byrne said that it was ‘important to give a clear indication’ and added:
I totally understand, based on the evidence, that it may need to be tweaked and so on, but for the artistic [community] it should show there is a commitment to continuing with it. The fear will be that we complete this scheme in 2025, there will be a hiatus and we will then be waiting to see what will happen. That is not what I would like to see happening.
Deputy Heydon said that ‘we cannot make that commitment but all of the key indications are here that it is very positive. … We will keep a very close eye on it.’
In May, Minister for the Arts Catherine Martin, speaking at a Status of the Artist in Ireland conference in Dublin, said:
I am regularly approached by artists participating in the scheme… Feedback from them, in terms of the impact that the support is having, is unfailingly positive. That is why I would like to see this scheme expanded to more and more artists. The research my Department is doing during the pilot will be key in providing a strong evidence base for its continuation.
The petition to extend the scheme has been shared by Improvised Music Company, Music Network, Contemporary Music Centre, National Campaign for the Arts, Dance Ireland, Praxis, the Irish Theatre Institute and many other groups and artists.
