The Musicians Union of Ireland (MUI) has welcomed the Government’s announcement of €50 million in measures to support the Live Performance sector.
Welcoming the announcement, MUI executive member, Niamh Parsons, said the support was long overdue although the funding commitment will not resolve the urgent issues faced by artists and other workers in the live performance sector as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We were in the first group of workers in Ireland to be affected by the pandemic and will be the last to escape. While this funding will not resolve all the issues within our sector it is positive and very welcome,” she said.
“The collapse of the live industry affected not only artists but the thousands of people who work alongside them, from road crew and sound engineers to security and haulage companies.”
SIPTU Organiser, Graham Macken said: “We are now calling on the Government to honour its commitments in the Programme for Government and the recommendation by the Arts Recovery Task Force to introduce a universal basic income for the Arts industry.”
In its report “A Life Worth Living”, published in November 2020, the Arts Recovery Task Force, which included SIPTU and MUI representatives, recommended that the Government should ‘pilot a universal basic income scheme for a three-year period in the arts, culture, audio visual and live performance and events sectors’.
“Workers in these sectors require emergency support if they are to survive this crisis, rebuild their creative futures and sustain and unite people following the difficulties posed by the Covid19 crisis,” Graham Macken said.