Qualifiers for the government's Basic Income for Artist scheme will their first payment today.

The pilot programme will see some 2,000 applicants paid €325 a week to allow them to devote themselves entirely to their art.

Applications first opened in April 2022, but payments to the applicants, which were chosen at random, were delayed by the government.

At present, many artists say their bank account tells a story of either feast or famine; the BIA aims to correct that and give artists the long-term financial stability that people in other careers enjoy.

It is a policy that the National Campaign for the Arts has been advocating for years for and the group’s chair,  Angela Dorgan, describes it as “the ultimate game changer”:

“It’s something that the National Campaign for the Arts have been asking in our pre-Budget submissions for about five years”, she told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“It means that artists who have to juggle three, four, five jobs to pay for their living… it means that they will be free to do just their artwork."

“So it is the ultimate game changer; the eyes of the world are on Ireland for this."

“There are a lot of countries, especially European countries, looking to emulate this. So the pilot is an incredibly important first step to this.”