The Arts Council has received an increase of 4.5% in the 2025 Budget, bringing its total funding to €140m.

This is the largest ever funding amount received by the Arts Council, but it is well short of its request of €160m.  The National Campaign for the Arts also called for an increase to €160m. The Budget allocation over the past five years can be seen below:

Arts Council funding, 2020–2025
2020: €80m
2021: €130m
2022: €130m
2023: €130m
2024: €134m
2025: €140m

Basic Income
Other announcements in Budget 2025 include funding of €35m for the Basic Income for the Arts pilot, which means the scheme is now funded beyond the end of its three-year pilot next August.

The total 2025 budget for the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media will be €1.27bn, an increase of 6% on last year.

Further details on the arts and culture budget will be announced at a press conference by Minister Catherine Martin on Wednesday 2 October at 3pm.

€1.27 bn for @DeptCultureIRL in #Budget2025, an increase of 6% on last year:

€226m for tourism including €61.4m for marketing to continue to promote Ireland domestically & overseas

record funding of €140m for @artscouncil_ie pic.twitter.com/2k0gSreEjv

— Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) October 1, 2024