Per Cent for Art

The Per Cent for Art scheme is a government initiative, first introduced in 1978, whereby 1% of the cost of any publicly funded capital, infrastructural and building development can be allocated to the commissioning of a work of art. Since 1997 this scheme has been made available to all capital projects across all government departments.

Capital programmes where the Per Cent for Art scheme applies include:

• public housing projects (social and affordable schemes)
• transport and roads
• environmental schemes such as drainage schemes, pump stations and reservoirs
• public buildings such as libraries, public offices, schools, hospitals, medical centres, prisons, arts buildings - cinemas, theatres, art centre
• conservation works carried out to public buildings and sites
• urban and village renewal schemes

In July 2019, the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht announced new bands and maximum limits.

Effective from 1 January 2020, the new investment bands and limits are:

• projects below €5,000,000: 1% of the cost of the project to a maximum of €50,000 (1% of upper limit)
• projects between €5,000,000 and €20,000,000: 1% of the cost of the project to a maximum of €125,000 (1% at median)
• projects between €20,000,000 and €50,000,000: 1% of the cost of the project to a maximum of €350,000 (1% at median)
• projects in excess of €50,000,000: Up to €500,000 being 1% of the lower level scale and declining as projects increase in scale

A National Per Cent for Art Committee was established in 2022 in relation to developing the Scheme, to include a new all of Government policy and updating the national guidelines. The committee is made up of government departments and public agencies charged with managing public capital programmes. The Group is chaired independently by Dr Ciarán Benson. The Arts Council provides the expert guidance and secretariat function to the committee, who are expected to complete their work by early 2024

Further detail on the Scheme can be seen here and the existing guidelines to the Scheme may be seen here.

• Note these guidelines refer cite the previous parameters, which are now outdated.