Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of the Department, the Arts Council and Equity Ireland for coming in today. I am sorry about the distraction we have had as a result of leaving the committee room to vote in the Dáil. As Senator O'Donnell has said, it is wonderful to have representatives of the arts community presenting today.

I will begin with a number of questions for Ms Katherine Licken. She said that on 10 November, the Department met with leaders in the theatre sector. Does the Department have plans to meet with other sectors within the arts community such as the visual, literary and dance sectors? The controversy has erupted in the theatre sector but it would be naive of us to believe there has been a problem only in that sector. I concur with what Mr. Feargal Ó Coigligh said earlier that it is a cultural problem. It is one we need to make a very significant cultural shift on. I noticed that the Women's Council of Ireland was a strong voice in the debate. The important thing is to establish mechanisms to support and facilitate women or men who find themselves in that position. I am glad to hear from the Department that there are positive and tangible measures. It is important because we were lacking tangible measures to give people a voice when there was a problem. It is important the Arts Council does the work of holding regional meetings across the country.

I concur with what Ms Andrea Irvine and Ms Karan O'Loughlin said. Having come from the arts sector, I know it can be a very lonely and isolated business to be in. In many cases, one is going from project to project and does not have continuity or a structure that provides a platform if there is an issue.

I know these are early days, but I wonder whether we have thought about how we can ensure supports are in place for artists. In many cases, it is necessary for artists to be self-employed because they move from project to project. I ask the witnesses to comment on this important aspect of the matter.

As Ms McBride has said, it is important for organisations that are in receipt of Arts Council funding to have health and safety measures and child protection policies in place. I appreciate that as she clarified at the outset, the Arts Council is not a regulatory organisation. It cannot regulate. I suggest it is equally important for arts organisations to have measures in place to ensure women and men are not bullied or harassed in the workplace.

I wonder whether the Arts Council - I welcome both Ms McBride and Ms Pratschke - has any plans in place to measure or monitor other sectors in addition to the theatre sector. There are many sectors in which people have found themselves in vulnerable positions. Such people might not have had a voice. I ask the witnesses to comment on that.

I ask Ms McBride to comment on the notion that somebody could be an employee within an organisation while also sitting on the board of that organisation. What are the compromises that surround that? How can we facilitate an arm's length approach that allows the board to work independently of the wider organisation? How can we ensure people have a voice in the event of a problem? How can we ensure there is a basic structure in place to have such issues addressed?

Ms Irvine made an important comment about an issue that arose at the last meeting of this committee. We had a long discussion on Creative Ireland when we were going through the figures as part of the Estimates process. As I have said openly, my concern with Creative Ireland relates to the benefit to artists. When we drill down into all the lovely fancy fare that is associated with Creative Ireland, we must know what is the benefit to the artist. I have been there as an artist and as someone who has facilitated artists in projects. It would be a crying shame if artists were not benefitting from events like Cruinniú na Cásca. Such flagship one-day events are wonderful in so far as they allow us to promote the country from a tourism perspective, but I want to know if artists are benefiting from them. I would not like to think that any professional artist who was involved in that event in any shape or form did not get a professional fee. I hope artists did not feel they had to be there because they would miss out on other opportunities if they were not part of it. That would be very wrong. Such practices should not be allowed to continue. We need to drill into these issues, given that €1 million was spent on Cruinniú na Cásca, if my recollection is accurate.