Chairman:

Even if the Minister is correct on this issue it would still be my instinct that an investigation is warranted.

I would also like to discuss the bullying and harassment issues in the arts sector. There has been some effort on the part of the Minister to pull together the eight theatre heads on this issue. I welcome that initiative. I cannot understand why the same urgency was not applied with regard to the National Museum of Ireland issue. In a couple of the debates that we have around this issue, the Minister quoted section 24(2) of the Arts Act 2003 which states, "The Council shall be independent in the performance of its functions". The next words are "under this section". This section refers to stimulating public interest in the arts, promoting knowledge, appreciation of practice of the arts, improving standards of the arts and otherwise assisting in the development or the advancement of the arts. We would all agree that independence in those spaces is good. The reason which the Minister has given for not getting more involved does not pertain to the Employment Equality Act 1998, the Workplace Relations Act 2015 or the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. My instinct would be that there is a necessity for accountability in this space. We know that wrongdoing proliferates when there is no accountability. We know also that this wrongdoing has been going on for a long time in some of these organisations. If it were in the Minister's design to reduce the funding which some of these organisations receive, not on the basis of the Arts Act 2003 but on the basis of the workers' rights legislation, would that not have the effect of improving the working experience of men and women in those organisations?