27 Irish artists awarded €325 per week through Basic Income pilot

Dozens of artists in Ireland have been awarded grants through the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme. 

The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and the Media announced the awarding of 27 grants yesterday (October 11) after former grantees declined the offer to participate due to a variety of reasons. 

These include no longer living in Ireland, having taken up full-time education, and no longer working in the arts. 

The 27 spots were filled in an anonymised randomised selection of over 6,000 other eligible applicants who had not already been selected to participate. 

A total of 2,000 artists will now benefit from the three-year scheme - which aims to enable artists and arts workers to focus on artistic production without having to gain employment in other sectors - entitling them to €325 per week. 

According to the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, the first payments are expected to be issued shortly. 

Minister Martin said, "[sic]I was pleased to inform 27 artists that they had been selected to participate in the Basic Income for the Arts pilot scheme. These places became available to replace 27 applicants who declined their offers to participate in the scheme. Over 6,000 applicants who were eligible for the Basic Income but had not already been selected to participate were included in an anonymised randomised selection to fill the 27 spots. I expect the first payments to issue in the coming weeks."  

Over 9,000 people submitted applications in the hopes of being part of the scheme, with offers made to the initial 2,000 selected artists in early September. 

Participants of the scheme will be required to collect and share data on details of time spent on various activities including creative practice, working in the arts, work in other sectors, training, professional development, leisure time, income earned from the arts and other sectors, wellbeing indicators and demographic data such as age, gender, ethnicity, and disability status. 

A thousand unsuccessful but eligible applicants were invited to participate in a control group to facilitate a comprehensive ex post appraisal of the pilot. This will help evaluate the impact of the payment by comparing outcome for those who received the payment with a group of peers who were not paid the basic income over the same period. 

Data collected will be anonymised in the evaluation of the scheme.