Irish artists will soon be able to receive government funding under the new permanent scheme Basic Income for the Arts (BIA). Announced last week (10 February) by Patrick O’Donovan, Ireland’s minister for culture, communications and sport (DCSS), the permanent BIA follows a much-lauded pilot scheme that ran from 2022 to 2025 and saw 2,000 artists receive a weekly stipend of €325. Applications for the BIA will open in May and be assessed over the summer.
However, with payments from the pilot ceasing last month, the new eligibility criteria yet to be released, and funding not being released to permanent-scheme participants until the second half of the year, a number of artists who participated in the pilot programme feel they have been left in limbo.
Some of those who have been affected have spoken out, stating that while the scheme did what was intended—relieving artists of the stress of operating in a gig economy during a time of global financial instability—the transition from pilot to permanent scheme has put them back into the unstable situation it sought to remedy.
“[The pilot] has been really great,” one artist, who requested anonymity, tells The Art Newspaper. “But waiting to see if I am even eligible to apply again has meant I am uncertain about how to plan. It has been really stressful.”
The writer Eva Kenny, who took part in the trial run, agrees. “The people on the pilot were very conscientious about the fact that this had the potential to be expanded to more artists,” she says. “We dedicated ourselves to our artistic practice and stepped away from our other work out of respect for those that didn’t get it, and the results were transformative, but we are now after months of confusion faced with potentially stepping away from our artist jobs.”
The BIA has also complicated other means-tested funding. As a sufferer of a chronic illness, the artist and writer Day Magee lost out on means-tested benefits while receiving BIA, and getting them reinstated has been complicated, they say. Magee is now having to apply for work outside the arts. The writer and dancer Maryam Madani, who is a wheelchair user, is also currently waiting to have her disability benefits reinstated now that her BIA payments have ceased.
“I know a number of artists that had [BIA] these three years and they said it was such a relief, not to worry day after day [about money] and [now they are] suddenly be back in that situation,” says Michaële Cutaya, a spokesperson for Praxis, a trade union for artists in Ireland. “There are people with families [who need] childcare… If you have to then take on a different kind of job, it’s really disruptive.”
The DCSS did not respond to a request for comment.
‘A rolling three-year lottery’
Artists on the pilot scheme have spoken widely about the benefits of receiving BIA, such as being able to self-fund and run community groups, afford therapy and have the financial confidence to start a family. An independent, in-depth cost benefit analysis of the pilot published by the DCSS last September found that it not only improved the lives of the artists, but was also profitable. Making €1.39 for every €1 spent, the scheme helped those on BIA earn more, pay more tax and cost the state less in social and healthcare. These results have ultimately led to the new permanent scheme.
The permanent BIA will, for now, mirror the pilot and support 2,000 successful applicants with €325 per week on a three-year cycle, with €18.27m allocated in Ireland’s 2026 budget. According to a government statement, BIA will open for applications in May and be assessed over the summer, with payments to successful applicants beginning before the end of 2026.
Uncertainty remains for artists, however, with information around eligibility yet to be announced. “Guidelines outlining the detail of criteria and parameters for the scheme are currently being finalised and will be published in April,” the statement says.
Eligible artists will not be guaranteed BIA in perpetuity, a decision that is contrary to recommendations by Praxis published in October. Artists will only be able to receive payments for three out every six years, so those selected in the 2026-29 round can not reapply for the following one. (Artists who were on the pilot and who meet the new eligibility criteria will be able to apply for BIA in 2026.)
In what appears to be an effort to avoid a repeat of the confusion that has arisen at the end of the pilot, there will be a three-month tapering off period at the end of each funding cycle.
Even for established artists, grants and payment within the arts sector remains unstable and unpredictable by nature
Maryam Madani, writer and dancer
There are concerns about the length of each cycle. “What people don’t understand is that, even for established artists, grants and payment within the arts sector remains unstable and unpredictable by nature. Three years is not enough time to establish one’s practice to the level that it can counteract the nature of the sector,” says Madani. “The rolling three-year lotteries that are being proposed are essentially repeats of the pilot, which has already been proven successful and now demands to be implemented on a wider scale in order to be effective and not divide the sector.”
Eva Kenny agrees that the permanent BIA does not go far enough: “The fact that the pilot programme is being copy pasted in 2026, then in 2029 and it’s not actually being expanded or developed feels as though that’s going against the terms and conditions of [pilot members’] participation.”
In 2020 there were 8,200 applications for the 2,000 places, and it is expected within the artistic community that this number will grow when the new applications open.
“The BIA pilot research has consistently demonstrated both the positive impact it has had on those in receipt of it and how difficult it is to work as an artist in Ireland given the income precarity prevalent in the sector,” Patrick O’Donovan said in a statement. “I encourage artists from all over the country to apply to ensure that those selected for the scheme represent the broadest range of artists practicing in Ireland today.”
