Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I fully understand that. Some of my comments are less focused on actors as the State should recognise that actors are not just normal jobseekers in between jobs. After a period, when it is acknowledged that a person is a professional actor, the State should ensure a decent living for them and make some sort of arrangement where they are employed by the State or given a decent level of income so that they do not have this precarious existence. I say that as an aside and perhaps Irish Equity could respond to that point. I am talking about the people who make the props, provide transport and build the sets. These are very skilled people who have absolutely no continuity of employment at. Production companies get certain types of tax breaks, grants and loans. How many of these people do they employ directly?