Ireland's Basic Income for the Arts experiment has given creatives a weekly payment for three years. Now, a permanent program could be on the way.

As Ireland’s $1,500-a-month basic income pilot program for creatives nears its end in February, officials have to answer a simple question: Is it worth it?

With four months to go, they say the answer is yes.

Earlier this month, Ireland’s government announced its 2026 budget, which includes “a successor to the pilot Basic Income Scheme for the Arts to begin next year” among its expenditures.

Ireland is just one of many places experimenting with guaranteed basic income programs, which provide recurring, unrestricted payments to people in a certain demographic. These programs differ from a universal basic income, which would provide payments for an entire population.

      • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 hours ago

        Wishing to be an artist does not make it so. There is a lot of human slop in “arts”.

          • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            5 hours ago

            Everyone is his or her personal authority on what is art and what is slop. That’s what makes art subjective. Which also makes defining who is an artist subjective.

            For my PERSONAL perception, quite a lot of what is sold as art is slop. If you consider randomly splattered paint or rusty heaps of steel “art”, fine, that is also your PERSONAL decision.

            • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              2·
              4 hours ago

              So you are saying that no single authority can define who is or isn’t an artist because art is personal? I agree.

              • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                4 hours ago

                And that was the very reason why I asked how an “Artist” is defined under that rule.

                • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  1·
                  18 minutes ago

                  Yeah, I guess we disagree on what that means. From my understanding, the fact that such an authority can not exist means to you that the system will be corrupt or unfair, because someone ultimately needs to decide whether you qualify or not. I disagree with that and think you can just skip the authority altogether. Just verify they are not employed and have sold some threshold amount of art, or made performances, over 6 months or something