Ms Orlaith McBride:

I shall respond to the question posed by Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell. There are two issues. The Arts Council, which is a State agency, the Department and the union, Equity, are all represented here and are all accountable in a way. Processes such as this, coming and presenting to the committee, make us accountable. We are accountable in any event but I believe we are almost accountable to ourselves in a much more significant way than heretofore. It would be extraordinary to have an Oireachtas committee that did not discuss one of the most significant issues to have happened in the arts and theatre community. In the context of accountability and the actions we are taking to ensure that situations such as this do not arise again, that individuals do not feel so silenced and that they can come forward, we are having a public debate so that people will not behave in that way in the future.