Thousands more artists will soon receive direct payments as part of Ireland’s Basic Income for the Arts plan, made permanent this year after a three-year pilot program was hailed as a massive success.
“This is a gigantic step forward that other countries are not doing,” Ireland’s Culture Minister Patrick O’Donovan told media earlier this year. “For the first time in the history of the state, we now have, on a permanent basis, a basic income structure that will really revolutionize [and] set Ireland apart from other countries with regard to how we value culture and creativity.”
Recipients will get €325 (~$375) every week for three years, beginning later this summer.
Independent financial analysis found that for every €1 Ireland invested in the artists during the three-year pilot, €1.39 was returned to the economy through their taxes, spending, and decreased welfare payments and administrative costs.
The artists enrolled reported transformative life changes, as one told The Art Newspaper, getting more work done in their fields of professional expertise instead of treading water in low-paid gigs.
“Artists on the scheme spent more time creating and less time trapped in unrelated jobs just to survive, and many became better able to sustain themselves through their work alone,” said artist Peter Power, a member of Ireland's steering committee of the National Campaign for the Arts. “ ... It changes your relationship with banks, landlords, savings, pensions. The fundamental architecture of being a secure citizen becomes available to you.”
Dr Jenny Dagg from Maynooth University told RTÉ Brainstorm that positive results were seen quickly:
After two years on the scheme, artists increased the time spent on their creative practice each week by 11 hours ... cost-benefit analysis showed that artists increased their monthly arts-related expenditure by €333 (about $378) and their arts-related income by on average over €500 (about $567) per month.
An independent study of the pilot found that artists didn't just get more work done – basic income reduced their levels of anxiety and alleviated depression, too.
Ireland’s is the world’s first permanent basic income program sending direct, unconditional cash payments to professional artists, and it enjoys overwhelming public support – of 17,000 public survey respondents, 97% supported the program becoming permanent.
Actors, writers and painters based in the Republic of Ireland are all eligible. The pilot cost about $85 million, and the program will renew every three years. This year's selectees will not be eligible to reapply in 2029.
Praxis, the Artists’ Union of Ireland, welcomed the program's permanent footing but called for it to be expanded to lift the three-year individual limit:
Artists are workers whose labour underpins Ireland’s cultural and creative life, and that income insecurity is a structural feature ... basic income should function as long-term public investment in the sector as a whole, not as a time-bound award to selected individuals.
The pilot began in 2020, during the Covid pandemic, after Catherine Martin, Ireland’s former culture minister, commissioned a task force to come up with ways the government could support artists. It recommended a basic income pilot, opened applications in April 2022, and received 8,000 applications.
“Worrying about putting bread on the table really impacts artists’ creative juices,” Martin told the New York Times in 2023 after the pilot launched. “This is about giving them space to work.”
O’Donovan said that Ireland’s investment in a guaranteed basic income sets the nation apart from others. But some are taking interest:
- In Canada, the government’s own financial watchdog recently concluded that a guaranteed basic income could alleviate poverty by up to 40%. CBC News reported that momentum is building there in the wake of Ireland’s successful pilot.
- Last year, Wales initiated a basic income pilot for 18-year-olds leaving the care system, with direct payments of £1,600 (about $2,140) a month for two years. Officials in London, one of the world’s most expensive cities, are paying close attention.
- Lee Jae-myung, governor of South Korea’s largest province, launched a successful basic income program that provided regular cash payments to residents, boosting local spending and serving as a model for broader economic reform.
This renewed interest in the potential of basic income programs has yet to echo in the United States.
And that’s where you come in.
