For more than three decades, Ireland has encouraged artists by providing “tax-free status on income from original works considered to be of creative, artistic or cultural merit. To qualify, a sample or copy of work must be submitted to the Revenue Commissioners. The scheme costs an estimated €35 million a year in lost taxation revenue.” Now a list of artists benefiting from the plan has been published under the Freedom of Information Act, and it includes “the names of most authors, artists and musicians who came to prominence in the late 1990s.” As least one political party says high-earning artists should start paying tax.