Mr. Pádraig Murray:

It is a very interesting question. My personal observation is that there are not two sides to this. Everyone in this room is on the same side on this issue. It is an issue that has affected and is affecting our industry, which we all work in and love.

I join others in saying what an incredible service those women have done for our industry by coming forward in this manner and how brave it is of them to do this. In one of the interviews I read, one of the women said that she did not know where to go. This happened to her and she did not know where to go. There is one thing that can come out of this. Equity had a big success this year in the context of the Competition (Amendment) Act 2017, which came into law on 1 September. I am convinced that it came about because it had cross-party support and was not opposed by anybody. Everybody agreed that it was an injustice and there was cross-party support. We are here as a cross-party committee - ourselves and the Arts Council. The one thing that needs to come out of these discussions, rather than just more hot air, will be that somebody will know they can go somewhere if an issue of this nature arises again. That is an important aspect.