An Oireachtas committee has heard that two in every five artists saw their income decline by over 50% last year, "with the vast majority seeing no improvement in 2021".
The total output in the arts sector was more than halved, with GDP dropping 54%.
Professor Kevin Rafter, Chair of the Arts Council, detailed the unpublished research, which sheds light on a sector he said was already struggling with low job security and low pay.
He was addressing the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media.
The arts sector was the first hit by the pandemic, and will be the last to recover, Prof Rafter said, predicting that it will remain in crisis into next year.
The committee heard that the hospitality sector is also struggling.
Paul Treyvaud, owner of Treyvaud's Restaurant in Killarney, Co Kerry, said: "Just yesterday, I took 500 cancellations through-out the month of July, and the first two weeks of August."
Mr Treyvaud said that he and his staff "still have no idea when we're getting back to work", and said that to describe the situation as "utter carnage is an absolute understatement".
He said the arrival of the Delta variant means we have to ask, "Who’s not doing their job? Because we've done everything we've been told to do."
"I love my profession way too much to let this be the scapegoat for any longer. We have to stand up - we have to fight!", Mr Treyvaud told the committee.
No-one was expecting yesterday's Government announcement to delay reopening indoor dining, he said.
"[It] was literally a dagger through the heart," he added.
"I think that what we are seeing is only the tip of the iceberg of the carnage that is coming down the road."
Earlier, Prof Rafter noted that funding for the Arts Council is at €130m, "an historic high", and that there was a "90% increase in funding applications in 2020", with the majority submitted by new applicants. The council provided funding to 190 organisations faced with "imminent closure", he said.
The shut-down of theatrical activity nationwide has left a "huge void" in local communities, according to the Drama League of Ireland.
National Chairman, Ollie Kenny, said there are 700 drama groups on the island, with 25,000 people directly involved, which attract an audience of up to 1m every year.
Income streams have been "severely depleted", he said, and he asked for a clear indication from Government as to when they can start rehearsing again.
Rob Donnelly, President of the Association of Irish Musical Societies, said it takes three months and up to €50,000 to prepare a show, which typically employs up to one hundred people.
He said that the association has "lost about 170 shows in the past year", and he criticised the lack of a road map for resumption of activity in the sector.
We need a "roadmap, guidelines, and help", Mr Donnelly said, noting that January was the earliest that shows would be able to restart.
Maureen Kennelly, Director of the Arts Council, said that the pandemic "will have deterred an awful lot of young people" from entering what has been shown to be a very fragile sector, and warned that a whole generation could be lost to the arts, choosing instead to opt for safer professions.
