Ms Karan O'Loughlin:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it today. Our colleague, Ann Russell, was taken ill and she is replaced by Andrea Irvine.

The Irish Equity group was established in 1949 to organise and represent actors in the Republic of Ireland with the objective of securing decent working and living conditions for actors. In 1979, the Irish Equity group merged with the then ITGWU, now SIPTU, and became the cultural division of the ITGWU. The cultural division also included the Association of Artists in Ireland, led by Robert Ballagh, the Society of Irish Playwrights, with John O'Donovan, and the Association of Irish Composers. Currently, Irish Equity sits within the arts and culture sector of the services division of SIPTU and the day-to-day work is overseen by an executive committee of Irish Equity members who are elected at the AGM of Irish Equity. During all of this time the union has been concerned not only with a narrow focus on wages and conditions, but also with the quality of life for actors at work and in society.

It was no surprise that when, in more recent times, anecdotal evidence of bullying and harassment started to come our way, this matter was discussed frequently and at length by the executive committee of Irish Equity. Subsequently, a decision was taken to undertake a survey of workers in the arts to get a snapshot in time of the experience of people working in the various disciplines in the arts. This survey was put together in 2015 and went live online in early 2016. There were 285 responses to the survey. Over 63% of respondents were female and over 80% were between the ages of 25 and 54 years, with 62% describing their working situation as freelance. Over 57% of respondents said they had experienced bullying in the course of their work, with almost 74% confirming that they did not report this behaviour to anybody.

The effects of the bullying are quite significant with anxiety and depression, feelings of dread, not wanting to go to work and sleeping problems among the symptoms described.

Irish Equity was very concerned by these findings and while we do not assert that the survey is large, overly formal or academic, the information gathered is extremely useful in giving a picture of the real life experiences of workers in the arts. We published our survey along with good policy guidelines and circulated it to Equity members and various funding bodies. Our intention was to engage the funding bodies in a conversation about our concerns about the findings and to ask for their support in finding ways to change a workplace cultural problem within the arts. We were disappointed with these engagements. Our position was that the level to which applicants for public funding have awareness and good policy and procedures needed to be established. Having good policy and procedures in place should be a qualifying criterion for public funding. Where organisations were identified as not having these policies and procedures, the union, the organisation and the funding bodies should co-operate in assisting them to develop them. While generally sympathetic to the argument, for the most part the funding bodies we spoke to did not see it as their role to interfere in the governance of organisations to this extent. The exception was the Dublin City Arts Office, which was quick to acknowledge the survey outcomes and was agreeable to working with the union to endeavour to create cultural change. The union agreed with the Arts Office that a broader engagement with the industry was required. We then reached out to Screen Training Ireland and Screen Producers Ireland to discuss the possibilities of holding an industry seminar on dealing with bullying and harassment at work and on promoting good practice. This event was organised over the summer and took place on 10 November in the Dublin City Arts Office building in Foley Street. It was a successful event with 50 people from theatre, film and TV present.

While it was an instructive and informative event for those participating, on its own it is not enough to create the kind of attitudinal change that is required. Irish Equity is of the view that a number of actions need to be taken. While Irish Equity welcomes the initiative taken by the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, including the engagement with the heads of eight leading theatre organisations to discuss ways to create a change in culture for the arts, a baseline needs to be identified. If this is to be a credible exercise with real and lasting outcomes, the Minister should be satisfied that those eight organisations are operating good practice on issues of bullying and harassment. This is essential if these organisations are being asked to take the lead on the matter. There should be direct co-operation and engagement between Irish Equity, arts organisations and training bodies to develop and monitor best practice in the industry. The Minister should encourage theatre organisations to establish a representative umbrella body that can engage with stakeholders collectively on industry matters in the way that Screen Producers Ireland does for the audiovisual industry. This will greatly assist in creating industry oversight and norms.

Given the freelance nature of the work in the arts for many, a method of reporting that protects the worker needs to be established. Extending the cover of the protected disclosures legislation to cover reporting of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment would provide the required safe space for workers. It would provide enough incentive for employers and arts organisations to take on these issues with the level of seriousness they deserve.

Drama schools and arts colleges should develop at least one module on dignity in the workplace and creating a positive workplace culture so the next generation of workers in the arts bring new perspectives on what a dignified workplace means. All applicants for public funding should have to have good practice and policy in place as a prerequisite for access to such funding. The objective of all of this is to ensure that culture change is achievable and sustainable and to ensure the message to perpetrators of bad behaviour is clear, that the workplace is a harassment free zone, perpetrators are not welcome and will be found out and weeded out.