Ireland's policy of granting full-time professional artists tax-free status on their income has been challenged by the Irish Labour Party which has suggesting that writers, artists and musicians earning more than €100,000 ($130,000) a year should lose their tax-free status. This week new figures were released showing that around 1,500 people have benefited from the scheme between 1998 (when the country's Freedom of Information Act came into law) and 2001. Since 2002, anyone applying for the exemption may loose anonymity.The Irish Government estimates that the exemption costs approximately €36.4 million in lost taxation revenue each year and has signalled that the artistic tax break is one of several schemes that will be reviewed by independent consultants this year.