Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 May 2023
186. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will report on the success of a pilot scheme (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20384/23]
View answerThe Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot was a key priority for me as Minister with responsibility for arts and culture. I see this scheme as an important intervention to support the arts sector recover after the devastation wreaked by the Covid pandemic. Covid highlighted both the precarious nature of working in the arts and the importance of the arts for us all.
The pilot was also the number one recommendation of the Arts and Culture Recovery Taskforce which I established in 2020 to examine ways in which to help the arts recover post pandemic. I was very pleased to have been able to deliver on this recommendation. Payments on the scheme have been ongoing to recipients since the end of October 2022.
The pilot scheme includes a research programme which will examine, over a three-year period, the impact of a basic income style payment on artists and creative arts workers. As such, evaluation will be continuous, including through a longitudinal study which will see participants surveyed every six months. The data gathered as part of the research will provide an evidence base around the impact of the policy.
The scheme is a randomised control trial which consists of two groups of randomly selected people. One will receive the basic income – the treatment group, while the other, – the control group, will not receive the BIA. Analysis of the results will involve a comparison of averages between the two groups. As the groups have the same characteristics at baseline and are large enough to be a statistically representative sample, any difference arising during the trial can be assumed to have been caused by the policy.
The research project is being undertaken by a group of economists and policy analysts who are all members of IGEES (the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service). In addition, the ESRI and IGESS will provide peer review support around methodology and research papers being produced as part of the project. Data collected will be made available to independent researchers should they wish to do their own research on related topics of interest.
