Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I just wanted to make two points. I am in a dilemma here, because sometimes the precarious nature of a job is its creativity. Within the arts, people like to move, change or travel, to get different experiences, work with different directors or writers and so on. That applies whether they are people doing hair or the main director. The witnesses are right that precarious nature is sometimes taken for granted. Nobody wants to consider the implications of this for an actor who is 50 or 60 years old and there are no more parts for him or her. The same phenomenon of holding people in esteem exists in theatre.

This goes back to how we look at the arts and culture. In politics, we are afraid even to say the words "arts", "film" "dance" or "drama". We do not refer to them. We include them in something else. On the leaving certificate, there are 25 points for maths but not for music. We will not say that we believe in this as a proper career where people could be precarious and permanent when necessary. It is coming up here. People want to be creative and imaginative. They want to live in the world of the original, of beauty and that which is sacred and cultural. It is hard for them to do it, whether they are construction workers, writers or actors because it is precarious. Mr. Murray is right about the bullying, because it is free. The wonderful words about the caged bird being free apply in the arts. There are a lot of problems with that.

We have to get classrooms, universities and colleges out of our heads when we think of training in the arts, because mentorship plays a huge part in this. I started as a radio actress, and I was around Daphne Carroll and Sean Ford. I used to sit in the studio when I might have three lines on page 39 of the script and those actors were playing the main part. I would sit in awe of these great actors with voices and experience, and that is when one begins to learn. When I talk about training, I mean mentorship. I mean exactly what the witnesses have said. One does not have to go into a college and sit there, because that is not how it is done. It is done with greats, be they photographic greats or director greats. If I gave the wrong impression there, I just wanted to pull that back. The witnesses' industry is wonderful and it does give great employment, but because it is creative, it does not have the boundaries into which we can nicely put other areas of employment. Politics is very interesting because if they do not like us in politics, we will not come back the following day either.