As Ireland opens its Budget books in 2025/2026 it’s heartening to see the BIA ( basic income scheme for artists) expanded and made permanent -- a gesture that honours creativity as a civic good, not a private luxury.
Yet John Locke’s reminder still echoes: “It’s not what we consent to that limits government, but what we lack the power to give away." The true measure of governance lies not in spending but in the stewardship of freedom, conscience, and the imagination that sustains them both.
“It’s not what we consent to that limits government, but what we lack the power to give away." -- John Locke
On Budget Day, when ledgers open and figures are recited like psalms of progress, it’s worth pausing to remember what truly defines the bounds of good governance. Consent is vital, yes -- but it is not infinite. There are rights so deeply rooted in human dignity that no vote, no tax, no law can rightly surrender them.
Locke’s insight reminds us that the State is a steward, not a sovereign of the soul. Its strength lies not in how much it spends, but in how faithfully it guards the freedom and moral space of those it serves.
So it is heartening, this year, to see the State’s basic income scheme for artists opened to two thousand new entrants and placed on a permanent footing. Such measures recognise that creativity is not a luxury but a form of civic contribution -- that the imagination, too, deserves its place within the social contract.
Budgets come and go; deficits rise and fall. But liberty, conscience, and justice -- and the arts that give them voice -- are not commodities to be balanced. They are the quiet constants that remind us why a State exists at all.