"It's creating a handout culture"

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Liveline 44 min 4 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 1 hour ago

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What is the proposed €100 culture voucher for 16‑year‑olds and how is it intended to work?

Ciarán Cudahy 0:00

0818-715-815. This is Liveline on RTE Radio 1.

Kieran Cuddihy 0:07

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Ciarán McCarthy 0:27

Good afternoon. You are very welcome to Live Line. 087-484-88888 is our WhatsApp number. If you want to send a message, you can give me a call as always on 0818-715-815 or send an email. Liveline at RTE dot IE. I want to read an email that came into us out of the blue. Hi, Kieran. I'm just wondering if you could discuss society's view on mothers staying at home to rear children and leaving a professional career. I'm a married mother of three children under four. I would like to stay at home and prioritize them while they're young while also being there to pick them up after school when that time comes. Career breaks are being refused where I work, and with the crisis in childcare, it seems like the whole system is anti women and anti children.

Ciarán McCarthy 1:17

I met someone recently and the conversation went to when I'd go back to work. I found myself trying to defend how hard working with young children is while also being slightly embarrassed to say, I just want to stay at home as it's easier for everyone. I'm asking myself why am I uncomfortable saying this? Will people think I'm lazy staying at home after having a decent job? Will people think we are loaded, which is not the case at all? It seems there is a big change in family life since the eighties and nineties, where if a mother was at home it was so normal. I do believe having the comfort of a mother at home, not rushing, is a lovely experience for children and so good for their overall brain and emotional health.

Ciarán McCarthy 2:00

I understand it's a privilege in this economy, but families also need to sacrifice a lot to allow one parent at home. I'd love to hear what the listeners of Live Line think. Is there a stigma in staying at home? Yours sincerely. So Is there a stigma in staying at home? This is something That we're going to come back to later in the show on foot of this email. So, likewise, if you want to email like this listener, liveline at RTE.ie, or send me a WhatsApp now, 087-484-8888, with your views, and we're going to come back to that issue. But the first thing I want to talk about is this uh culture pass. The government planning to give a 100 euro voucher to all 16-year-olds so that they can spend it on arts, cultural, and music.

Ciarán McCarthy 2:45

Music events or venues from next year. They're talking as well about rolling it out to seventeen Euros then in next year's budget for the following year. The details are still to be worked out. It'll cost between seven and eight million quid, and it would mimic versions of the same that exist in France and Italy and Spain and Germany. Kira Dunn is on the line. Kira, do you think this is a good idea?

Unknown 3:10

Um, I I think that investing in the arts and culture sector is absolutely, you know, a a good idea. I'm just questioning whether giving a hundred euro at sixteen is the most effective way of creating a lifelong access to culture and passion for the arts and love of music and arts. Um I I think we absolutely do need to give children and old children the opportunity to experience. um arts and culture, but it has to just start at an earlier age and like like everything, early intervention. Putting uh music into schools, instruments into schools, teachers, bring the artists into classrooms. Like giving somebody a hundred euro a sixteen. Isn't the access to that isn't simply the price of the ticket. Like for my son Sam, who has a disability.

Unknown 3:57

The ticket isn't the biggest barrier. It's actually not even close to the top of the biggest barrier. Getting him there, having the support he needs to participate it.

Ciarán McCarthy 4:07

So it right, th I guess there's two issues there. There's there's accessibility maybe for people like Sam, and then there's just more broadly whether this is value for money. Um on on on the former point on the issue with with Sam, um Is is there Is there a better way to spend that money then? Is is is it infrastructural spending? Is it spending so that the world is a more accessible place for 'em and s uh by just doing that, the arts and culture is more accessible?