Ireland/ 8.1 Support to artists and other creative workers  

8.1.1 Overview of strategies, programmes and direct or indirect forms of support

Statesupport for artists in Ireland is channelled through the Arts Council, which offers a suite of programmes and schemes, direct and indirect, to this end. Specific details can be found on their website (see listing of web links in chapter 9.2). See also chapter 1, chapter 5.1.5 and chapter 8.1.4. A 2010 report on The Living and Working Conditions of Artists in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland gives an account of the arts regulatory and support framework as well as providing valuable information about key aspects of the lives of artists in Ireland including demographics, levels of education and training, work patterns, income and standard of living, and artists' reflections on their careers and lives. It is notable that there are now three times as many professional artists (4 915) in Ireland as there were in 1979. The study shows that the average income of artists is lower than that for the three occupational categories identified by the Irish Central Statistics' Office and closest to the earnings of clerical and sales employees, despite a higher education level. Thus only 41% spend all their time working as artists, since 50% earned EUR 8 000 or less in 2008 from their work as artists. Supplementary activity brought the average total personal income from all sources in 2008 to EUR 25 080.

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