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UBI Lab Arts, UBI Lab Leeds and UBI Lab Network, in association with Basic Income Ireland present:
Please join us for the eighth and final event in our special series of discussions dedicated to reflecting on what we can learn from the Irish Basic Income for the Arts Pilot and its change to Permanent.
The Government of Ireland ran a Basic Income pilot that began in September 2022 and ended in February 2026. 2000 artists and cultural workers received an unconditional income of €325 weekly for a period of three and half years. This eighth and final session will be an opportunity to check-in with some of the artists involved in the pilot scheme and learn from them about how the pilot affected them and their creative communities. What was the impact of the end of payments in February 2026? What do they think about the new permanent scheme for 2000 artists which will start in September 2026 and the conditions and criteria of application?
The Irish government has initiated a permanent Basic Income for the Arts programme because of the success of the pilot. However, it will continue to limit payments to a small number of artists, for a limited period. So, as in the pilot, 2000 artists will be randomly selected from eligible applicants and will receive €325 per week for 3 years beginning towards the end of this year. New sets of artists will be chosen for 2030-33 and subsequent three-year rounds.
You can watch the recordings from our previous seven sessions here:
First Session Dec 2022 | Second Session June 2023 | Third Session Dec 2023 | Forth Session Jun 2024 | Fifth Session Dec 2024 | Sixth Session in June 2025 | Seventh Session in Dec 2025
We will again be joined by artists Alisha Doody, Shane Finan, Lauren Conway and Tadhg Ó Cuirrín, who will give us personal insights from the perspective of recipients and members of the ‘control group’ who applied but did not receive the Basic Income for the Arts (BIA). We may be joined by other Irish artists from different fields of the Arts and a representative of the National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA). NCFA has advocated for a permanent programme which includes all artists. Basic Income Ireland will provide us with an update about their work, the current political context in Ireland, the evaluation of the pilot, and their views onthe permanent BIA scheme.
Following a brief refresher about Universal Basic Income, other pilot schemes, and the work of UBI Lab Arts, the wider UBI Lab Network, and Basic Income Ireland we will open up a discussion with the artists. There will also be plenty of opportunity for questions from the audience.
Information about the permanent programme, together with reports evaluating the pilot and related information, are available from the Irish Department of Culture, Communication and Sports here.
The session will take place on Zoom. Places are free but booking is required.
If you do not see a Form to RSVP please click here.