{"id":105486,"date":"2025-10-06T18:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/105486\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T18:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:05:12","slug":"basic-income-support-scheme-for-artists-to-be-made-permanent-and-opened-to-new-entrants-in-budget-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/105486\/","title":{"rendered":"Basic income support scheme for artists to be made permanent and opened to new entrants in budget \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State\u2019s basic income scheme for artists will be opened up to 2,000 new entrants next year and put on a permanent footing in the budget<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Under the scheme \u2013 which has so far operated on a pilot basis \u2013 those participating are paid \u20ac325 per week. <\/p>\n

Minister for Culture Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> has agreed with Government spending ministers that the scheme will now operate on a permanent footing, with a new round open for applicants from September next year. <\/p>\n

The size of the scheme will mirror that in the pilot, although it may expand next year to 2,200 if additional funding can be found. The intention is to incrementally open it up to more people in the years ahead. <\/p>\n

The application criteria will also be expanded to include more artistic disciplines. <\/p>\n

It comes as budget negotiations go down to the wire, with five big-spending departments yet to agree their budget allocations for next year. <\/p>\n

The Departments of Health, of Housing, of Social Protection, of Children and of Education are still locked in negotiations as the hours tick down to budget day. <\/p>\n

It is understood that negotiations for increases to core welfare rates<\/a> are focusing on a riseof \u20ac8 to weekly payments. Increases are expected to the fuel allowance and also to the level of income disregard for carer\u2019s benefit. <\/p>\n

In the Department of Housing, the renter\u2019s tax credit is expected to be extended \u2013 potentially for several years \u2013 but not increased from its current level. VAT on new apartment sales is to be cut to 9 per cent from 13.5 per cent at a cost of \u20ac250 million. The cost of extending the renter\u2019s tax credit is said to be in the region of \u20ac350 million. <\/p>\n

Health is expected to be allocated in the region of \u20ac27 billion next year, an increase of \u20ac1.2 billion on 2025. Meanwhile, there is an expectation that reforms in the childcare sector will focus on increasing places for children rather than reducing costs. However, that department has not yet agreed its allocation. <\/p>\n

Negotiations between Minister for Education Helen McEntee<\/a> and the Department of Public Expenditure have been problematic. A division has remained over what level of spending will be counted towards maintaining services at their current level and how this will impact \u201cnew\u201d money for additional interventions in 2026. <\/p>\n

Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan will receive funding for up to 1,000 new garda\u00ed in 2026, as well as money for body cameras, victim support, youth diversion and domestic violence programmes. Extra money will also be allocated towards speeding up immigration processing. <\/p>\n

Student contribution fees are expected to fall by \u20ac500 on a permanent basis<\/a>. In real terms, however, the cost for households will increase due to a \u20ac1,000 temporary measure that was agreed last year. <\/p>\n

Public transport fees are expected to remain lower, while VAT on household utility bills will remain at 9 per cent – costing around \u20ac254 million. <\/p>\n

There will be \u20ac558 million for SEAI residential and community energy upgrade schemes, including the solar PV scheme, to support retrofits. This is an \u20ac89 million increase on last year. <\/p>\n

Research and development tax credits are expected to increase, although the level is not yet clear. As expected, the VAT rate for food businesses will fall to 9 per cent from July next year, costing around \u20ac240 million in 2026. The full year cost will be significantly higher from 2027 onwards. <\/p>\n

There will be no income tax cuts, with Government sources pointing to plans outlined by the Coalition that they would be avoided in the event of economic headwinds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State\u2019s basic income scheme for artists will be opened up to 2,000 new entrants next year and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,10471,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-105486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-budget","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}