Arts sector raised €306.8m in tax revenues last year

THE ARTS sector contributed €306.8 million in tax revenues, and a total of 21,328 jobs, to the Irish economy last year, according to a report published by the Arts Council yesterday.

Compiled by Indecon International Economic Consultants, the report – entitled “Assessment of the Economic Impact of the Arts in Ireland” – concludes that “the arts continue to be a major employer and contributor to Irish economy output”.

However, it admits that owing to the absence of complete data for 2010 from many areas of the sector, its conclusions may have to be updated as further figures become available.

At the publication of the report Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan, said the arts were crucial building blocks for economic policies which the Government had identified as crucial for Ireland’s economic recovery.

This summer, he observed, the economy of Dublin was very much based on the arts events going on in the city. He added he would fight for the maximum funding for arts organisations in the budget.

The chairman of the Arts Council, Pat Moylan, said while the arts should not be evaluated solely on economic grounds, it is clear from this report that the sector is a financially important and labour intensive one.

“We need to articulate that now more than we ever did,” she said.

On behalf of Indecon one of the authors of the report, economist Alan Gray said traditionally the value of the arts to the Irish economy has been under-recognised. “Our approach is a very rigorous one,” he said.

“We have not gilded the lily. We have looked at this in a very prudent and conservative way.”

He did admit however that compared to the figures from a similar report carried out in 2009 – of which the current report is an update – “there has been a decline in employment, a decline in revenue and a fairly proportional decline in value added” in the arts sector in recent years.

The Indecon report used a method called economic impact modelling to calculate the overall contribution of Arts Council funding to the Irish exchequer as well as to the economy in general.

It insists that the €60.3 million given in grants to organisations and individuals by the Arts Council in 2010 creates a ripple effect in all sorts of areas from job creation to exports.

BIGGER PICTURE: AGGREGATE ECONOMIC IMPACT IN SPOTLIGHT

TO GET an aggregate economic impact, the report takes into consideration the purchasing of goods and services, expenditure on wages and salaries, and other aspects of the economic turnover of the organisations and individuals funded by the Arts Council in 2010.

The aggregate figure arrived at then is €151.5 million – of which a whopping €5.8 million is contributed by the activities of individuals who have received grant aid. Add in the “indirect and induced effects” of council funding, and you get a figure of €195 million – a nice return on the council’s €60 million investment.

While direct tax returns to the exchequer from the arts sector in 2010 amounted to just €41.1 million, the total contribution from “the wider arts sector” when “gross value added” is taken into consideration is some €306.8 million, according to the report.

Gross value added is, the report says, the sector equivalent of GDP, or gross domestic product. The “wider arts sector” includes literature and publishing, library archives, museums – although these are areas where complete data for 2010 is not yet available. It also features something it calls “artistic and literary creation and interpretation”.

Where job creation is concerned the exponential increase claimed by the report is even more startling. The number of direct jobs created by Arts Council funding in 2010 is 1,769. Include the wider arts sector, however, and you get a total of 13,330; while the total for “the creative industries 2010” comes to 49,306. Add in “indirect and induced employment” and you get a figure of 78,900.