merrion street

Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, Catherine Martin T.D., has welcomed what she described as a “very useful and informative meeting” which she had today with the Events Industry Alliance.

The Events Industry Alliance is composed of the Music Industry Association of Ireland, the Event Production Industry COVID19 working group (EPIC), the Association of Irish Festival Events, the Association of Irish Stage Technicians, the Event Industry Association of Ireland as well as the Event Industry Ireland (EII), Irish Showman’s Guild (ISG), Entertainer’s Ireland Stand Together (EIST) and Irish Inflatables Hirers Federation (IIHF) groupings.

At the meeting, the Minister heard first hand the concerns of the events industry which includes the commercial live music performance sector. Many of the constituent groupings at the meeting have been in on-going engagement with the Minister’s officials over the past few months and it was agreed that this engagement was extremely useful and should continue. This engagement will provide a route for the sector’s input to the Government’s Roadmap for Resilience and Recovery.

The Minister noted that she intends to establish a dedicated Taskforce for the Arts and Culture Sector in the coming week and today invited the sector to have a representative on it. The Minister also informed the meeting that she hoped to announce details of a pilot live performance event scheme which was provided for in the July stimulus package.

The Minister told the meeting she was acutely aware of the balance needed between the health guidelines, actually living with Covid-19 and sustaining livelihoods. She told event organisers at the meeting that she hoped the new taskforce on arts and culture would feed into the national recovery plan. The Minister also acknowledged the sector’s fears about any loss of skillsets during the pandemic as she pledged to engage further around supporting live event organisers and workers.

Minister Martin said “I am very pleased to meet with the Alliance. I am a musician myself and understand the difficulties faced by the sector. I am eager to get our musicians, our performers and all their behind-the-scenes technical support people back to earning a living and doing what they do so well. Irish society needs live performance and events.”