On Wednesday 11 February 2026, the Event Industry Association of Ireland (EIAI) addressed the Joint Oireachtas Committee as part of its examination of Developing Ireland’s Live Music Industry. This marked an important opportunity to place a clear message on the parliamentary record:
Live music policy cannot succeed without a safe, resourced, locally enabled and repeatable events delivery system.
Our Core Position
EIAI outlined that while Ireland continues to produce world-class musical talent, the ecosystem that enables live performance has weakened. Post-Covid, the sector did not only lose revenue, it lost repeatable delivery capacity: the ability to deliver events week-to-week across venues, towns and regions. Without targeted action to rebuild grassroots volume and operational capability, Ireland risks producing talent without sufficient stages, venues, crews or promoters to sustain progression. Our full submission is avalable here.
Key Recommendations Presented to the Committee
EIAI proposed a practical, delivery-led package focused on rebuilding system capability rather than adding new bureaucracy:
- Adopt a Strategic National Events Plan, delivered locally through county and city strategies.
- Establish a National Events Support Office to reduce friction and support local authority capability.
- Create a National Events Centre of Excellence, hosted through the LGMA, to maintain and update Codes of Practice on a formal national cycle.
- Modernise and maintain Ireland’s event Codes of Practice as living, version-controlled guidance.
- Implement a Live Music Pathways Programme to strengthen progression from education to paid performance.
- Stabilise grassroots venue programming and expand safe capacity in public and community spaces.
We also made clear that the specialist operational expertise required to maintain and support the national events ecosystem resides primarily within the professional delivery sector and must be embedded in any national shared-service model.
Why This Matters
Ireland already understands how national ambition translates into local repeatable delivery — sport provides a strong example of structured grassroots-to-elite pathways. Live music requires the same enabling discipline.
- This is not about creating new approval layers. It is about ensuring that:
- Guidance is current and consistent,
- Local authorities are supported rather than isolated,
- Decisions are defensible,
- Grassroots activity is enabled rather than unintentionally suppressed,
- And the live music pipeline is rebuilt sustainably across all regions.
What Happens Next
EIAI will now:
- Continue engagement with the Department,
- Seek follow-up meetings with Committee members,
- Work with members and stakeholders to progress implementation pathways,
- And ensure that industry expertise remains central to any reform process.
Click below to view the discussion in full:
If you would like to contribute to the next phase of engagement, please contact us.