Caelainn Hogan

I think there's a huge divide in this country and it's completely eroding trust in our political institutions.

And it's opened up space for far-right rhetoric as well.

And to come in and for extreme fringe parties to really gain a footing in this country because of that complete lack of understanding of what most people in this country are going through, just struggling.

And I think we have to question that exactly.

I don't think this government and Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been putting that money in the right place.

I mean, look at the money wasted on a printer that didn't even fit in the room in government buildings.

So there's no question that money has been wasted.

But then that's a question of political policy and what our political priorities should be and who this government is really investing money in.

I can't wait to make more money than they get to keep or less money than they get to keep.

That'd be great, you know.

Hugely, yeah.

I mean, there was just a court case or the US jury just found that Ticketmaster was responsible for illegal monopolies that were, you know, taking advantage of fans and artists.

And it's interesting that this story is coming when

And artists around the country are applying for the basic income for the art scheme, which is only going to help a fraction of artists, only 2000 out of probably more than 8000 artists who will apply for it in this country.

And but the research I was on the pilot and it showed that artists are fighting facing extreme financial precarity in this country.

It's affecting their well-being.

It's affecting their mental health.

And the basic income did show that for every euro spent supporting artists, society made back one euro 39.

But for some reason, despite all that and the great international press that the government's getting for this, they decided not to expand it beyond 2000 artists.

So a tiny fraction of people.